different between provocative vs racy

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p???v?k.?.t?v/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /p???v?k.?.t?v/

Adjective

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; sexy.

Related terms

• provoke
• provocation
• provocator

Related terms

• provocateur

Translations

Noun

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 [...].

Latin

Adjective

pr?voc?t?ve

1. vocative masculine singular of pr?voc?t?vus

English

Etymology

race (“having a characteristic taste (of wines, fruits, etc.)”) +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?si/
• Rhymes: -e?si

Adjective

racy (comparative racier, superlative raciest)

1. Mildly risqué.

2. Having a strong flavor indicating origin; of distinct characteristic taste; tasting of the soil.

   Synonyms: fresh, rich

3. (figuratively, by extension) Exciting to the mind by a strong or distinctive character of thought or language; peculiar and piquant; fresh and lively.
4. (programming) Involving a data race or a race condition.
   • 2016, Elvira Albert, Ivan Lanese, Formal Techniques for Distributed Objects, Components, and Systems

     We evaluate the automatic fence insertion procedure by running our tool on a number of different benchmarks containing racy code.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Cary, Cray, cary, cray

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ra.t?s?/

Noun

racy f

1. genitive/dative/locative singular of raca