-ee
Added to transitive verbs to form words meaning a person or thing that is the object of that verb (i.e., to whom or to which an action is done).
Suffix morpheme
- Added to transitive verbs to form words meaning a person or thing that is the object of that verb (i.e., to whom or to which an action is done).
- examine + -ee → examinee
- interview + -ee → interviewee
- train + -ee → trainee
Synonyms: -ed
Antonyms: -er
- Added to intransitive verbs to form words meaning a person or thing that is the subject of that verb (that is, who or that does an action).
- absent + -ee → absentee
- respond + -ee → respondee
- stand + -ee → standee
- Used to form words meaning a person who is the other party to a contract or other transaction involving a person described by the corresponding word ending in -or.
- assign + -ee → assignee
- legate + -ee → legatee
- mortgage + -ee → mortgagee
Antonyms: -or
- Used to form words meaning a person who has undergone a particular medical procedure.
- laryngectomy + -ee → laryngectomee
- Irregularly added to nouns to mean a person somehow associated with the object denoted by the noun.
- barge + -ee → bargee
- tender + -ee → tenderee
- venereal + -ee → venerealee
Origin
From Middle English -ee, -ē, from Anglo-Norman and Old French -ee, French -é, -ée, endings forming past participle of verbs ending in -er. Doublet of -ate. More distantly related to inherited English -ed.
Forms
Suffix morpheme
- Used to form diminutives.
- boot + -ee → bootee
- goat + -ee → goatee
- settle + -ee → settee
Synonyms: -cule -el -et -ette -icle -ie -kin -le -let -ling -ole -ule -y mini- micro- nano-
Origin
Perhaps a variation on -ie and -y
Synonyms
Antonyms
super- supra- hyper- ultra- uber- macro- arch- over- mega- giga- -zilla grand great
Suffix derogatory, morpheme
- Used in mimicking English as stereotypically spoken by the Chinese.
- "No stealee. You no thinkee? Chinaman no thinkee stealee!" he said, earnestly. - 1897, The Outlook, volume 56, page 1044:
- A Chinaman had a toothache, and phoned a dentist for an appointment. Doctor: "Two-thirty all right?" Chinaman: "Yes, tooth hurtee, all light. What time I come?" - 1938, Minnesota Journal of Education, volume 19, page 52:
Origin
Most likely derived from broken English used by Chinese immigrants to America during the 17th to 19th centuries. The -ee was added by those speakers for final consonants in English words that do not exist in Cantonese phonology.
Related
Suffix alt of, alternative
- Alternative form of -y (infinitive suffix).