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-ee - 4 dictionary results

-ee

 
a suffix forming from transitive verbs nouns which denote a person who is the object or beneficiary of the act specified by the verb (addressee; employee; grantee); recent formations now also mark the performer of an act, with the base being an intransitive verb (escapee; returnee; standee) or, less frequently, a transitive verb (attendee) or another part of speech (absentee; refugee).
Origin:
< F -é, (masc.), -ée (fem.), ptp. endings < L -ātus, -āta -ate 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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Language Translation for : -ee
Spanish: ¡oh!, German: oh!, Japanese: ああ
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-ee 1  
suff.  
    1. One that receives or benefits from a specified action: addressee.
    2. One that possesses a specified thing: mortgagee.
  2. One that performs a specified action: absentee.


[Middle English, from Old French -e, -ee, past participle suff., from Latin -ātus; see -ate1.]

Usage Note: Reflecting its origins in the French passive participle ending -é (feminine -ée), the suffix -ee was first used in English to refer to indirect objects and then to direct objects of transitive verbs, particularly in legal contexts (as in donee, lessee, or trustee) and in military and political jargon (draftee, trainee, or nominee). Beginning around the mid-19th century, primarily in American English, it was often extended to denote the agent or subject of an intransitive verb, as in standee and returnee. The coining of new words ending in -ee continues to be common. A number of these coinages, such as honoree, deportee, and escapee, have become widely accepted. Many others, such as firee (one who is fired from a job), invitee, jokee, and roastee (one who is ridiculed at a roast), are created ad hoc and often have a comic effect. On rare occasions the suffix -ee has been applied to noun forms, giving us words like benefactee (from benefactor) and to transitive verbs, where the suffix denotes the agent, such as attendee.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
-ee 2  
suff.  
    1. One resembling: goatee.
    2. A particular, especially a diminutive kind of: bootee.
  2. One connected with: bargee.


[Variant of -y1.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

-ee

-ee\ [Formed on the F. p. p. ending -['e], masc.] A suffix used, chiefly in law terms, in a passive signification, to indicate the direct or indirect object of an action, or the one to whom an act is done or on whom a right is conferred; as in assignee, donee, alienee, grantee, etc. It is correlative to -or, the agent or doer.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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