-ee

Usage Note: The suffix -ee has its origins in the French passive participle ending -é (feminine -ée). It 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). Typically the action of the verb happens to the person being described by the noun—a draftee is a person who is drafted, not a person who drafts other people. Beginning around the mid-19th century, primarily in American English, the -ee suffix was extended to denote the subject of an intransitive verb, as in standee ("a person who stands") and returnee ("a person who returns"). 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. But many others are created on an ad-hoc basis and tend to have a comic effect. Thus, a firee is one who is fired from a job, a jokee is one who is the subject of a joke, and a roastee is one who is ridiculed at a roast. 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 subject refers to the agent of the action, such as attendee (one who attends a conference).