Agitator

What does Agitator mean in American Law?

The definition of Agitator in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

When applied to a person, the term means “one who stirs things up,” but the implication is that what is stirred up is trouble, and the term, while not necessarily alleging unlawful activity, is nevertheless usually used perjoratively. Common uses are “labor agitator” (on behalf of unions or unionization), “political agitator” (in favor of usually radical change), and “seditious agitator” (the same, but with an implication of illegality). Most common is “outside agitator,” the idea being that everything would have been fine but for the intrusion of willful outsiders, e.g., “Our Negroes were purely happy until those outside agitators stirred them up.” As one can imagine, one man’s “agitator” is another man’s “fighter for truth and justice.”

Grammar

This term is a noun.

Etimology of Agitator

(You may find agitator at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).

1640s, agent noun from agitate (verb); originally “elected representative of the common soldiers in Cromwell’s army,” who brought grievances (chiefly over lack of pay) to their officers and Parliament. Political sense is first recorded 1734, and negative overtones began with its association with Irish patriots such as Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847). Historically, in American English, often with outside and referring to people who stir up a supposedly contented class or race. Latin agitator meant “a driver, a charioteer.”