provocative

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French provocatif, and its source, Late Latin provocativus, from Latin provocare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹəˈvɒk.ə.tɪv/
• IPA^(key): /pɹəˈvɑk.ə.tɪv/

Adjective

provocative (comparative more provocative, superlative most provocative)

1. Serving or tending to elicit a strong, often negative sentiment in another person; exasperating.
2. Serving or tending to excite, stimulate or arouse sexual interest.

Related terms

• provoke
• provocation
• provocator

Translations

tending to provoke strong negative feeling

• Arabic: مُسْتَفِز (mustafiz)
• Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: provocador, provocatiu
• Czech: provokativní (cs)
• Finnish: provosoiva (fi), provokatiivinen, provokatorinen
• French: provocateur (fr) m, provocatrice (fr) f
• German: provokant (de)
• Ido: (-ul,-in) ^{(please verify)} provoko (io) o
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: procace (it), attraente (it)
• Maori: whakataratara
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: provoserende

  Nynorsk: provoserande

• Polish: prowokacyjny (pl)
• Russian: провокацио́нный (ru) (provokaciónnyj)
• Spanish: provocador (es), provocativo

tending to arouse sexual interest

• Finnish: provokatorinen
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Noun

provocative (plural provocatives)

1. (obsolescent) Something that provokes an appetite, especially a sexual appetite; an aphrodisiac. [from 15th c.]
   • 1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury:

     She used by way of Provocative, to read the wanton Verses of her Paramour in the day time [...].

   • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., page 165:

     [A]nd that one great and all-important occasion and provocative of these beliefs was actually the rise of self-consciousness — that is, the coming of the mind to a more or less distinct awareness of itself and of its own operation, and the consequent development and growth of Individualism, and of the Self-centred attitude in human thought and action.

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Latin

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) prōvocātīve

1. vocative masculine singular of prōvocātīvus