These words refer to things, particularly complexions, that are lacking in colour. Pale is the most general and informal of these. It is the only word here that can refer to a relative lightness of colour that is permanent or natural: pale Scandinavians and swarthy Italian; choosing the palest shade of blue for the bathroom. More often the word suggests a temporary loss of colour because of emotion or sickness: growing pale with fear; looking feeble and pale from his long illness. In these cases, it is the change in colour that the word emphasizes. The change need not be negative, however: The eastern horizon was pale with the first hint of dawn. Because of the word’s association with illness, it can refer more generally to an undesirable weakness or dullness: a pale performance in an otherwise strong cast. Ashen is a much more restricted intensification of pale ; it refers mainly to an extreme but possibly temporary loss of facial colour and usually points to an abnormal or undesirable state: a face ashen with shock; troops that looked haggard and ashen from the long march; the ashen, pinched features typical of undernourished children. The word can also refer to the greyish, dull appearance of something that has been vividly coloured: storm clouds that turned the bright summer sky ashen and sombre. Cadaverous is an even more restricted and more intense substitute for ashen . It refers almost exclusively to a facial or bodily state and indicates a more permanent unhealthy or deathly look. In addition as well: the bony, cadaverous faces of fashion models; the cadaverous survivors of Auschwitz. Although the word compares this kind of look to that of a corpse, cadaverous is usually used to describe a living person.

Pallid and wan are both more formal than the foregoing; both can sound somewhat archaic or precious. Pallid particularly has been overused as a more genteel or supposedly more elegant substitute for pale . In reference to facial appearance, the word concentrates on unhealthy states rather than those resulting from temporary emotional seizures: the sick child’s pallid cheeks. It would sound incorrect or affected to describe with this word things naturally lacking colour, e.g., pallid snow. The word is useful as a disapproving word for anything that is dull, dreary or unspirited: facing the crisis with inept of formulas and pallid lack of imagination. Here, the word’s suggestion of preciosity is sometimes consciously brought to bear with critical intent: pallid Victorian poetry. Wan is more restricted to facial appearance and less open to criticism on the grounds of preciosity; it emphasizes a loss of vigour, temporary or permanent: the wan faces of coal miners who seldom saw the sun; wan and wasted by disease.

Livid has almost lost any usefulness it once may have had by the contradictory meanings it has gathered to itself. Coming from a root referring to the colour blue, the word can refer clinically to a bruised, discoloured skin. Many people would tend to misunderstand the word when used in this way. Parallel to this use, the word can refer to a face flushed or purplish from intense emotion, particularly rage: absolutely livid when he heard the news. The connection with rage has become so customary that no change in colouration is suggested by the word. In contrast to this and to the word’s suggestion of a flushed or a bluish cast, livid can also indicate a colourless or ashen appearance: the livid lips of the corpse. Some purists insist that only this last suggestion is valid, but such a use would be widely misunderstood.