A person who deliberately provokes, stirs up trouble, or intentionally incites others to react or cause disruption.
From French 'provocateur,' derived from Latin 'provocare' meaning 'to call forth' or 'to challenge,' combining 'pro-' (forth) and 'vocare' (to call).
The word became famous in politics for 'agent provocateurs'—undercover agents who infiltrate protest groups and do provocative things to justify police crackdowns, making it a term loaded with suspicion about who's actually causing trouble.
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