provocative

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈvɒk.ə.tɪv/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈvɑk.ə.tɪv/

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.

• provoke
• provocation
• provocator

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.

prōvocātīve

1. vocative masculine singular of prōvocātīvus