Etymology

agent provocateur

Today it means: A person who secretly disrupts a group's activities from within the group, particularly by encouraging or committing illegal acts to discredit the group or expose them to prosecution; an instigator, troublemaker. Full definition →

French agent provocateur
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The story

  1. French · borrowed fromagent provocateur
  2. English todayagent provocateur

Borrowed from French agent provocateur (literally “provocative agent”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.