Does the liver really turn white?
When someone turns "yellow" could it also be related to a liver problem?
2007-04-11 08:10:17 · 11 answers · asked by Dylan 3 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
The connection is to courage being symbolically related to blood. A lily liver is one colored as the flower, white, instead of a deep red-brown, and hence, bloodless, and so associated with a cowardly person. There is a reference to lily-livered in Shakespeare's Macbeth 5:3:15: "Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear, thou lily livered boy." Shakespeare wrote of cowards with "livers white as milk".
Going further back, the ancient Greeks used to sacrifice an animal before battle. The liver was regarded as a prime omen - if it was red then all was fine, but if it was pale then bad tidings were in store for them. By extension, the liver of a coward was thought to be pale and "lily livered". Other expressions were "white livered" and "pigeon livered".
2007-04-11 08:21:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Lily-livered Definition
2016-12-26 18:17:42 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This Site Might Help You.
RE:
Why is the phrase "lilly-livered" associated with cowardice?
Does the liver really turn white?
When someone turns "yellow" could it also be related to a liver problem?
2015-08-11 23:18:28 · answer #3 · answered by Cleopatra 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Flowers are associated with the feminine, so lily-livered means a coward just like pansy means an iffeminate, wimpy man. And yes, if someone were to truly turn yellow that's jaundice, which is caused by problems with the liver.
2007-04-11 08:18:26 · answer #4 · answered by sarge927 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some have mentioned pieces of this, but to put it all together:
1) In classical cultures the liver was believed to be the seat of human passions
2) If the liver was as "white as a lily" it lacked red blood, taken as meaning "lacking courage"
3) The EXPRESSION "lily-livered" was popularized by Shakespeare who used it of characters in his plays
http://www.word-detective.com/082498.html
2007-04-11 08:29:12 · answer #5 · answered by bruhaha 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Before modern medicine people believed i.e. Greeks&Romans believed that emotions came from different organs. The Heart love etc., the liver courage and fortitude, etc. The references stuck in language.
2007-04-11 08:20:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jaundice is a yellowing of the whites-of-the-eyes and skin . . . it's caused by increased levels of bilirubin in the human body . . . bilirubin is usually processed by the liver, but when it can't properly do this, jaundice occurs . . . and some lillys are yellow :D
2007-04-11 08:21:05 · answer #7 · answered by hypoluxa 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Red. Definitely Red.
2016-03-13 06:53:24 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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Red: Without rules, we all might as well be up in a tree flinging our crap at each other. He's my favorite character c:
2016-04-09 08:53:39 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe it's an insult created by Shakespeare but could be wrong.
2007-04-11 08:16:35 · answer #10 · answered by luna 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋