| 词组 | livid |
| 释义 | livid Livid is ultimately derived from the Latin verb livere, which means "to be blue." Its original use in English was as a synonym, more or less, of black and blue, describing flesh that was discolored by or as if by a bruise: • There followed no carbuncle, no purple or livide spots —Francis Bacon, The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, 1622 (OED) Its first extension of meaning gave it the sense "ashen or pallid," with the idea of blueness now secondary, if not entirely lost: • The light glared on the livid face of the corpse —Ann Radclifte, The Italian, 1797 (OED) • ... the shuddering native, whose brown face was now livid with cold —W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1848 • Mugridge's face was livid with fear at what he had done —Jack London, The Sea- Wolf, 1904 In this sense livid came to be used especially to characterize the appearance of a person pale with rage: • He was livid with fury —Compton Mackenzie, The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett, 1918 (OED Supplement) This use gave rise in turn to a pair of new senses. Because the faces of angry people are reddened at least as often as they are ashen, and because livid is easily associated with such words as lurid and vivid, the images called to mind by such a phrase as livid with fury were for many people colorful rather than pallid, and the color they were full of—or at least tinged with—was red: • ... she saw the girl's head, livid against the bed-linen, the brick-rose circles again visible under darkly shadowed lids —Edith Wharton, The Old Maid, 1924 • ... the plate window where a fan of gladiolas blushed livid —Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, 1948 Livid also began to be understood as describing the angry state itself rather than the appearance produced by it: • Betsy is livid. She says now she will fight to the last ditch —Margaret Kennedy, Together and Apart, 1936 (OED Supplement) • The owners of large estates were ... livid at the prospect of his breaking up the bankrupt estates in the East —William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1960 • "Oh, Vernon, isn't it scrumptious?" some woman was exulting. "Those faculty wives will be livid!..." —S. J. Perelman, New Yorker, 26 Nov. 1966 Such is the mottled history of livid. The history of critical comment about it is briefer and somewhat less varied. Most of the criticism has been directed at the "reddish" sense, dating back at least to a book titled Handbook For Newspaper Workers, published in 1926. The Handbook regarded "black and blue" as the correct meaning. Krapp 1927 described livid as "a somewhat literary word for a bluish leaden color, especially in the phrase a livid bruise " Krapp did not single out the "reddish" sense, but he noted that livid "is often used ... with little realization of its definite meaning." A citation in our files from an unidentified newspaper in the 1950s takes the familiar line that "black and blue" is the proper meaning, but it also takes a somewhat unusual line in that the error it criticizes is the "ashen or pale" sense of the word. Bernstein 1958, 1965, 1977 sets the tone for more recent criticism by accepting both the "black and blue" and "ashen" senses while regarding the "reddish or red-faced" sense as an error. He does not mention the "furious" sense. The opinion of Freeman is like that of 1983 Bernstein. Bremner 1980 and Bryson 1984 also reject the "reddish" sense, but they both take note of—and accept—the "furious" sense. Kilpatrick 1984 is alone in regarding the "reddish" sense as established: "Only physicians and fuddy-duddies cling to the original meaning. When we learn that the president is livid at his budget director, we now infer that the president has a face like a Bloody Mary. So it goes." Note that the sense of livid in Kilpatrick's example is actually "furious." Our own evidence shows that the usual meaning of livid in current English is "furious." This sense is so well established that a phrase like livid with anger now sounds almost redundant. The other senses, whether judged "correct" or "incorrect" by the critics, are now somewhat rare. Use of livid to mean "black and blue" is, in fact, so uncommon that many readers will no doubt find it bewildering: • The grip of the dog's teeth, though kindly meant, was firm enough to give pain and to leave livid marks — John Updike, Bech Is Back, 1982 The "ashen" and "reddish" senses are hardly more common. It is often hard to tell which is meant in a particular context: • Suddenly Jerry seemed to petrify, features livid.... For a second, Barrett wondered whether Jerry might strike her or attempt to strangle her —Irving Wallace, The Seven Minutes, 1969 The truth is that livid seems no longer to have strong associations with any color. Whether red-faced or pale, a person who is filled with rage is now aptly described as livid. |
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