A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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About this entry:
First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1499-1533
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Provocative, -yve, adj. [Late ME prouocatyue noun = anything that excites appetite or lust (c1412), 17th c. Eng. also as adj.] a. Apt to excite lust or sexual appetite. b. Having the quality of giving rise to (a condition). —a1500 Henr. Test. Cress. 226.
Under smyling scho was dissimulait, Prouocative with blenkis amorous 1528 Lynd. Dreme 279.
Off lychorye thay wer the verray luris With thare prouocatyue impudicitie [etc.] 1528 Ib. 416.
Scho [Venus] is prouocatyue Tyll all thame that ar subiect to hir cure —1533 Boece 456b.
This mekillwort … is ane herbe … having liquore provocative to sleip
