-ee

-ee

is an active suffix originally drawn from Old French words denoting the recipient of a grant or the like, as in lessee and patentee. In more recent formations, -ee denotes (1) the recipient of an action, often corresponding to an agent-noun in -er or -or (addressee, amputee, employee, trainee; more recently shortlistee ‘a person who has been shortlisted’), (2) in a few cases, a person who performs an action or is associated with it (attendee = a participant at a conference or meeting, escapee, refugee, standee = a standing passenger). A conferee, as well as being ‘a person on whom something is conferred’, is another word for a participant at a conference; the formation is impeccable in the first sense but less secure (perhaps ‘a person who confers [with others]’) in the second. A few are peculiar to AmE, e.g. enrollee and retiree. The -ee in bootee and a few other words is a separate suffix of obscure origin; that in goatee, jamboree, marquee, and settee, is yet another (or possibly more than one).