To injure or bruise tissue by blunt-force impact without breaking the skin.
From Latin 'contusus' (past participle of 'contundere,' to beat or crush). The word entered English medical terminology in the 16th century and remains the standard term for blunt-force injuries in medicine.
Every time you fall off your bike and get a bruise instead of a cut, you've been 'contused.' It's the official medical word that makes a simple bruise sound more clinical and serious—doctors use it because it specifies 'blunt force without breaking skin.'
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