lily liver

[trevorrrrrr]

where does the phrase "lily liver" come from?

[shaneystar2]

There is a reference to lily-livered in Shakespeare's Macbeth
"Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
though lily livered boy."
Lily liver is one coloured as the lily, white, instead of a deep red-brown, and hence, bloodless, and so associated with a cowardly person.

Ignobly lacking in courage: chickenhearted, cowardly, craven, dastardly, faint-hearted, pusillanimous, unmanly.chicken, gutless, yellow, yellow-bellied.