lividity

American  

[li-vid-i-tee] / lɪˈvɪd ɪ ti /

Sometimes lividness

noun

1. a discolored, bluish appearance caused by a bruise, pooling of blood due to congestion of blood vessels, strangulation, etc..

   When the dead person is lying on their back, lividity will form on the buttocks, back, or backs of the legs.

2. a grayish or ashen appearance of the face; pallor.

   The traditional ghost image usually involves a certain paleness of the face—a corpselike lividity.

3. furious anger.

   When the generator they’d ordered arrived late and then failed to work, her lividity knew no bounds.

4. a reddish appearance of the face, as from strong emotion or embarrassment.

   I was on the shore with my parents, watching the sky flush scarlet with a hue like lividity rising to an angry face.

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Etymology

Origin of lividity

First recorded in 1400–50; from Late Latin lividitas, equivalent to Latin līvid(us) “black and blue” + -itās -ity ( def. ); see livid ( def. )

Example Sentences

She inspected the woman’s body to see whether her lividity patterns, which indicate the position of the body at the time of death, matched the husband’s story.

From New York Times • Feb. 25, 2020

After the ingestion of this herb in food he always had alarming attacks of sickness and pain in the abdomen, attended by swelling of the tongue and lips and lividity of the face.

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)

They collapse and disappear; a slight depression and a degree of lividity of the skin mark for a considerable time the situation they had occupied.

From The Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases by West, Charles

In his crown was the lividity of uncolored dawns, in his sceptre the dominion of the world.

From Mary Magdalen by Saltus, Edgar

On the 15th his condition was good, the swelling had somewhat augmented, there was not so much lividity, but the yellowish hue had increased.

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)