livor

English

Etymology

From Latin līvor.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪvɔː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪvɔəɹ/, /ˈlaɪvɔɹ/, /ˈlaɪvəɹ/
• Hyphenation: li‧vor

Noun

livor (countable and uncountable, plural livors)

1. (pathology) Skin discoloration, as from a bruise, or occurring after death.
2. (obsolete) Malice.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     To see a man [...] magnify his friend unworthy with hyperbolical elogiums; his enemy, albeit a good man, to vilify and disgrace him, yea, all his actions, with the utmost livor and malice can invent.

Related terms

• livor mortis

Latin

Etymology

From līveō (“I am bluish; I envy”) +‎ -or (noun forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.u̯or/, [ˈlʲiːu̯ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈli.vor/, [ˈliːvor]

Noun

līvor m (genitive līvōris); third declension

1. a bruise
2. a bluish color
3. (figuratively) envy, jealousy
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.85–86:

     Quō nōn līvor adit? sunt quī tibi mēnsis honōrem
     ēripuisse velint invideantque, Venus.

     Wherefore will envy not assail? There are those who would rob you of the honor of the month, and who wish to begrudge you, Venus.
     (Perhaps wishing to regain the favor of his former patron, Caesar Augustus, Ovid writes with twofold purpose in Book IV: Honor the traditional springtime worship of Venus, and defend an ancestry to her claimed by Julius Caesar, adoptive father of Augustus. See Venus (mythology).)

4. (figuratively) spite, malice, ill-will

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	līvor	līvōrēs
Genitive	līvōris	līvōrum
Dative	līvōrī	līvōribus
Accusative	līvōrem	līvōrēs
Ablative	līvōre	līvōribus
Vocative	līvor	līvōrēs

Related terms

• līvēns
• līveō
• līvia
• līvidus

Descendants

• English: livor
• Galician: livor
• Italian: livore
• Portuguese: livor
• Spanish: livor

References

• “livor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “livor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• livor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• livor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “lívor” in Leo F. Stelten, editor (1995), Dictionary of ecclesiastical Latin: with an appendix of Latin expressions defined and clarified, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, page 152/1

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līvōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liˈboɾ/ [liˈβ̞oɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: li‧vor

Noun

livor m (plural livores)

1. a bluish color
2. malice, malignity

   Synonyms: maldad, malicia, malignidad

3. (archaic, literary) bruise

   Synonyms: cardenal, moretón

Related terms

• lívido

 

Further reading

• “livor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 23rd edition, Royal Spanish Academy, 2014 October 16