[a. L. agitātor, n. of agent, f. agitā-re: see AGITATE a. and -OR.] One who agitates. Specially:—
† 1. Eng. Hist. An agent, one who acts for others (see AGITATE v. 5); a name given to the agents or delegates of the private soldiers in the Parliamentary Army 1647–9; in which use it varied with ADJUTATOR. Obs.
(Careful investigation satisfies me that Agitator was the actual title, and Adjutator originally only a bad spelling of soldiers familiar with Adjutants and the Adjutors of 1642. Adjutator has naturally seemed more plausible to recent writers unfamiliar with this old sense of ‘agitate,’ and the functions of the Agitators of 1647. J.A.H.M.)
1647. (June 4) Two Lett. of Sir T. Fairfax to both Houses of Parlt., with the Advice of the Council of Warre … also the Petition of the private Souldierie of the Army … presented … by their severall Adjutators. [Signed] Edward Saxby, Edward Taylor, Adjutators of the Generals Regime[nt] of Horse, etc., etc.
1647. (June 5) Solemn Engagement of the Army [Official paper printed under auth. of Gen. Fairfax] Upon a late Petition to the General from the Agitators in behalf of the soldiery.
1647. (June 11) in Rushw., Coll. (1721), VI. xv. 556. The Agitators on the behalf of the Soldiers press’d to have the Question put. [So always in Rushw.]
1647. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 6. The agitators are for certain reconciled with the army.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah Sight, II. xii. 250. Devills then dancing for joy, where once Angels (those holy Agitators) went up and down betwixt heaven and earth.
c. 1650. Sir T. Herbert, Mem. (T.). Active and malevolent persons of the army, disguised under the specious name of agitators, being two selected out of every regiment, to meet and debate the concerns of the army.
a. 1671. Fairfax, Short Mem. (1699), 207. Now the Officers of the Army were plac’d and displac’d at the will of the new Agitators. [So always in F.]
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. x. 33. The common soldiers made choice of three or four of each Regiment, most Corporals or Serjeants, few or none above the degree of an Ensign, who were called Agitators, and were to be as a House of Commons to the Council of Officers. [So always in Cl.]
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), II. X. 210. Those elective tribunes called Agitators, who had been established in every regiment to superintend the interests of the army (Note to Agitator: Some have supposed it to be a corruption of adjutator, as if the modern adjutant meant the same thing. But I find it always so spelled in the pamphlets of the time.)
2. One who keeps up a political agitation.
1780. Burke, Durat. Parl. (T.), Wks. (1884), VII. 76. In every district of the kingdom, there is some leading man, some agitator … who is followed by the whole flock.
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 4. Talked of by certain political reformers and other agitators.
1828. Ann. Reg., 123/1. Starting against him [Fitzgerald] their own great popish leader and agitator, Daniel O’Connell.
1853. Encycl. Brit., II. 240. The great agitator, Daniel O’Connell, was able to stir up the mass of the Irish nation.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., III. xvii. 261. He was by nature an agitator, and carried into the cabinet restless activity and the arts of cabal.
3. An apparatus for shaking or mixing.
1871. Balf. Stewart, Heat, 51. By means of an agitator every part of this tube … may be brought to the same temperature throughout.
