vexel

Etymology

Coined in the early 1900s by a trustee of Cornell University, from Latin vexō (“shake”) and German wechseln (“change”).

noun

  1. A troublemaker, a person who wants to change things.“[…] highly sensitized individuals of neurotic tendencies who manifest in their state of unrest a morbid desire to change everything. […] Let us [...] classify such people by combining a Latin and German root and calling the individuals "vexels" (Latin vexare, to shake : German wexeln, to change). Vexels appear in practically every large group of people who are organized for any purpose whatsoever,”