Word of the Day for Monday, June 25, 2012

makebate \MEYK-beyt\,
noun:
A person who causes contention or discord.

The man was a hater of the great Governor and his life-work, the Erie; a makebate, a dawplucker, a malcontent politicaster.
-- Samuel Hopkins Adams, "Grandfather Stories"

But after all he pays well that pays with gold; and Mike Lambourne was never a makebate, or a spoil-sport, or the like.
-- Sir Walter Scott, "Kenilworth"

Makebate stems from the Middle English word bate which meant "contention".

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