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Jackson6612 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

A fan of gladiolas blushed livid under the electric letters

livid
3: reddish <a fan of gladiolas blushed livid under the electric letters - Truman Capote>
[M-W's Col. Dic.]

Without any further context, what does the example quote mean to you?
  

Top answer

A bouquet decorates a billboard.

— Mister Micawber

  • A bouquet decorates a billboard.
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15 Answers
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A bouquet decorates a billboard.
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Or perhaps that the red light of the letters reflected red on the flowers.
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Jackson6612a fan of gladiolas blushed livid under the electric letters
"blushed" and "livid" mean the same in the definition. "blushed" is a participle adjective and "livid" is also an adjective. Why are they placed side by side and in what relation?

I would have written 'fan of gladiolas blushed under the' because to me the use of "livid" is a kind
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In the first place, it is a piece of literature, not a grammar exercise. Why don't you locate the source in Truman Capote's novel and have a look at the context, the surrounding text?
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Mister Micawberit is a piece of literature, not a grammar exercise
I'm sure Truman didn't invent a grammar of his own. I request you to help me with the questions.
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And I request you to do a little work for this free service: please find the context of the quotation.
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Without any context, I might think that it was a person who blushed. Emotion: embarrassed A person very, very fond of gladioas. Perhaps the wor
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khoffPerhaps the words in "electric letters" are disparaging gladiolas, much to the embarrassment of their devotees.
Hi Khoff

What makes you think that the words "electric gladiolas" are disparaging? What are these "disparaging gladiolas"? Is "in" really required? Please help me with these.
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Mr Micawber, I could only find this bit context:
Ellen had said, standing before the plate window where a fan of gladiolas blushed livid under the electric letters publicizing a cheap but decent berth en route to the kingdom and the glory. Now here again he'd locked the door and ...

Above "blushed" is an intransitive verb. Is "livid" an adverb?

I would have written 'fan of
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Jackson, you could consider "blushed livid" to be redundant, or you could consider "livid" to be describing the blushing in greater detail. I suppose someone or something could "blush a pale rosy shade of pink," "blush deep red," etc. Even if you consider it redundant, aren't authors entitled to use redundancy for stylistic purposes?

Edited to add: I googled "gradiolas blushed livid" t
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