question for safire's column

[sagehen]

Re: LIVID
My unprofessional guess is that, as with many words, its similarity in
sound to another word has caused it to accrue to itself a new meaning.
While no doubt it once meant deathly pale, its similarity to /vivid/
allowed it to be misconstrued in the expression "livid with anger" as
probably bright red. Now we have "livid sunsets" as a result.
I see the same pattern in  the confusion of /jejune/ with juvenile or
junior, and coming to signify /young/; of /reticent/ with hesitant; of
/hone/ with home; of /pawn/ with palm ( in the expression "palm off on").
These all seem to have become firmly established and are met with in print
frequently now. There are, of course, many others like these.
A. Murie