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In "provocateur," a word borrowed directly from French, one sees the English verb "provoke." Both "provoke" and "provocateur" derive from Latin provocare, meaning "to call forth." Why do we say "provocateur" for one who incites another to action, instead of simply "provoker"? Perhaps it's because of "agent provocateur," a term of French origin that literally means "provoking agent." Both "agent provocateur" and the shortened "provocateur" can refer to someone (such as an undercover police officer or a political operative) whose job is to incite people to break the law so that they can be arrested, but only "provocateur" is used in English with the more general sense of "one who provokes."
Synonyms
Examples of provocateur in a Sentence
Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 14 Sep. 2024
Yes, there were venerable antecedents to all these arguments, but what had once been the province of the provocateur was now something of a scholarly consensus.
—Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2024
When she was cast as some sort of unstoppable punching machine last week by pundits and provocateurs who had never seen her fight before, opponents and teammates who know her were shocked by the characterization.
—Greg Beacham, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Aug. 2024
After being harassed by a social media provocateur while waiting for a commercial flight at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, Griner was given the option to fly charter for the remainder of the Mercury’s road games in 2023.
—Jason Clinkscales, Sportico.com, 19 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for provocateur 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'provocateur.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near provocateur
Cite this Entry
“Provocateur.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/provocateur. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.
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