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You
can hardly open a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch television in
Britain without hearing a
coinage
of the suffix -ee.
There
often seems to be something slightly amusing about words ending in -ee,
perhaps because -ee adds an implication of being small and unimportant.
There are hundreds of them. Some are useful. Others seem unnecessary,
and even in bad taste, because they diminish the importance of what has
happened.
Most of the words refer to someone who is the passive recipient of the
action, or who is the one to whom something is done. For example, an arrestee
is a person who has been arrested; an awardee
is a person who is awarded a prize of some kind; a biographee
is a person who has had a biography written about them; an extraditee
is a person who is extradited from a country; a dedicatee
is the person to whom a book is dedicated; an electee
is a person who has been elected to a particular post; a shortlistee
is someone who's been shortlisted for a job; and so on.
For these words the suffix -ee is being used "as it should be"
- or rather, as it is in legal English, a use which started in mediaeval
times. Examples of the older use are lessor and lessee; mortgagor
and mortgagee; employer and employee. More modern examples
are tutor and tutee, rescuer and rescuee,
and mentor and mentee. That's one
that my daughter used to me the other day; I'd never heard it before but
I immediately knew what she meant.
Two very unpleasant words in this type of suffix are: a murderee,
the person who's been murdered; and a rapee,
the person who's been raped. I hate these, both of which I've seen in
newspapers, because they make the crime sound very minor and not at all
serious, and they belittle the person who has suffered.
There are also a number of -ee words where the person isn't the object
of the activity, but is the one who starts it: the startee
if you like! An escapee deliberately
escapes. An attendee attends
theatres, cinemas, meetings, conferences (though the latter are also
known as conferees).
If you are in London, watch out for the sign on buses for those of you
who wish to stand: "Only 6 standees
allowed".
GLOSSARY:
coinage: a newly invented word or phrase
Source:
New English Digest - Author:
Gwyneth
Fox
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