▪ I.-ee,suffix1used in technical terms ofEng.law, wasorig.an adaptation of the -é of certainAF.pa.pples., which were used asns.The existence in legalAF.of pairs of correlative words like apelour appellor, apelé appellee, seems to have led in the first place to the invention of words in -ee parallel to those agent-nouns in -or which had been adapted in legal use fromAF.; and subsequently the terminations -or and -ee were freely added toEng.vb.-stems to formns., those in -or denoting the agent, and those in -ee the passive party, in such transactions as are the object of legislative provision. The derivatives in -ee, however, unlike theAF.participialns.after which they were modelled, have not usually a grammatically passive sense, but denote the ‘indirect object’ of thevbs.from which they are derived. Thus vendee is the person to whom a sale is made, indorsee the person in whose favour a draft, etc. is indorsed, lessee the person to whom property is let. With still greater departure from the original function of the suffix, payee denotes the person who is entitled to be paid, whether he be actually paid or not. In a few cases the suffix has been appended, not to a verb-stem inEng.orAF., but to a Latinppl.stem etymologically related to anEng.n., as in legatee, a person to whom a legacy has been bequeathed.2. The use of this suffix in law terms has beenfreq.imitated in the formation of humorous (chiefly) nonce-words, as iestee, cuttee, educatee, laughee, sendee, denoting the personal object of the verbs from which they are formed.3. In a few words, as bargee, devotee, the suffix is employedapp.arbitrarily.4. -ee also appears in the English spelling of certainns.adopted frommod.F.ppl.ns.in -é, as debauchee, refugee.▪ II.-ee,suffix2of vague meaning and obscure origin. In bootee, coatee, where it has a diminutive force, it may (though not very probably) be an altered form of -y (inSc.-ie). In other words, as goatee, settee, the analogies that may have given rise to the suffix are uncertain.
