provocative

What it means

1. Serving or tending to elicit a strong, often negative sentiment in another person; exasperating.

   Synonyms: agitative

2. Serving or tending to excite, stimulate or arouse sexual interest; sexy.
3. Provoking or triggering any response.

   And the ‘wailing noise,’ which had induced the prosaic, indurated London cabman to get twice off his box to see what was the matter, what anguish had been provocative of that?

   1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle

   1 more example

   [I]t is a terrible long and slippery descent, and a shocking bad road. At the bottom, however, there is a pleasant public; whereat we must really take a modest quencher, for the down air is provocative of thirst.

   1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days

In a sentence

[I]t is a terrible long and slippery descent, and a shocking bad road. At the bottom, however, there is a pleasant public; whereat we must really take a modest quencher, for the down air is provocative of thirst.

1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days

Where it comes from

1. Latinprovocare
2. Late Latinprovocativus
3. Middle Frenchprovocatif
4. Englishprovocative

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

First known use: 15th c.