bruised

/bro͞ozd/

adjective

1. 1.

   (of a person or body part) having a bruise or bruises.

   "a bruised knee"

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2. 2.

   (of food) having been crushed or pounded.

   "the mix contains bruised oats"

The colours which approach the dark side, and consequently, blue in particular, can be made to approximate to black; in fact, a very perfect Prussian blue, or an indigo acted on by vitriolic acid appears almost as a black.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Theory of Colours (1810)

Perhaps that’s because blue-black traces its roots back to a mythic point of origin in Africa, whereas “black,” along with “Negro” and “African-American,” might be considered just one more stopping point on the way to an as-yet-unknown destination.