You can think of skin that has stopped being its usual colour. Something has happened underneath, and the surface shows it — a knock leaves a heavy blue-grey patch, a shock drains a face until there is no colour left, a feeling too big to hold changes how someone looks in the moment. Livid is the word for that changed surface. It does not fix one shade, which is why it can sit at both ends: the dark of a and the white of a face are the same idea seen from either side.
From the word’s history
The supplied source traces livid through Middle English and Old French to Latin līvidus, bluish, from the verb līveō, to be of a bluish colour. The colour meaning is where the word begins, and the other uses are that same changed skin seen in different situations.
來源資料把 livid 一路接回拉丁文 līvidus（帶藍色的），再往前是動詞 līveō（呈現青色）。所以顏色是這個字的起點。其他用法，可以想成都是同一片「變了色的皮膚」，只是出現在不同的情境裡。
Wiktionary entry for livid, supplied in this packet: "From Middle English livid, livide, from Old French livide, from Latin līvidus (“bluish, livid; envious”), from līveō."
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