controversialist

plural controversialists

1. One who regularly engages in public controversies.

   Richard Dawkins has become a leading controversialist in a few areas.

   5 more examples

   His indefatigable adversary, who is the perfect model of an agile controversialist, had attacked him as a magniloquent Thraso, on account of his Pansophical promises.

   1847–1886, James Crossley, editor, The Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington, notes

   Does this explain the sensational character of some of his public pronouncements? A controversialist might drive through some of the later chapters with a coach and four without encountering serious impediments; but sono ben trovati, and he is a hold man who would presume to pass final judgment upon the contemporary phase of Italy’s history.

   1926 May 28, Victor S. Clark, “The Life of Benito Mussolini”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2023

   He was not a drunkard, not a chronic bankrupt. For the rest, Mr. Woodward depicts [Thomas] Paine as a highminded controversialist, persecuted by reactionaries on both sides of the Atlantic for no more than liberal political views.

   1945 September 28, Charles W. Morton, “Tom Paine: America's God Father”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 May 2022

   In the early 1700s [Jonathan] Swift spent much of his time in London, where he wormed his way into the company of coffee-house wits and politicians, and, beginning to publish political tracts, won a reputation as a controversialist.

   2003, Roy Porter, chapter 9, in Flesh in the Age of Reason, Allen Lane, →ISBN, page 149

   This was to have been the final date of the rightwing controversialist’s charmingly named Dangerous Faggot Tour of US campuses.

   2017 February 6, Matthew d’Ancona, “There must be free speech, even for Milo Yiannopoulos”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2019

   Synonyms: controversionist, controvertist, polemic