Dark marks on skin caused by hitting something or being hit, where small blood vessels under the skin break and leak blood.
From Old French bruisier meaning 'to break,' related to bruser. The word entered English around the 14th century and originally meant any kind of crushing or breaking, later narrowing to the specific skin injury.
Bruises change color because your body is breaking down hemoglobin (the protein that makes blood red) into different compounds—yellow, green, and purple bruises are literally your body's waste management system at work!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.