A female agitator; a woman who stirs up or provokes public opinion or social change.
From Latin 'agitator' (masculine) with the feminine suffix '-ix' (from Latin '-ix', used to create feminine forms of agent nouns). This Latin feminine form entered English to specifically denote female activists, though modern English increasingly uses 'agitator' for all genders.
Words like 'agitatrix' reveal how languages encode gender into job titles and roles—Latin had systematic masculine and feminine pairs, but English gradually abandoned most of them, which is why 'agitatrix' sounds archaic even though it once was perfectly standard.
Latin feminine suffix '-trix' applied to 'agitatrix' (female agitator). Rare in usage; demonstrates how gendered suffixes segregated women activists into marked categories rather than universal 'agitator' or 'agitationist'.
Avoid 'agitatrix' in modern usage; use gender-neutral 'agitationist', 'activist', or 'organizer' instead. Gendered suffixes reinforce linguistic segregation.
["agitationist","activist","organizer","advocate"]
The existence of 'agitatrix' as marked feminine shows women activists were historically linguistically set apart; reclaim 'activist' as universal.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.