-ee - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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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.
-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).
- Less commonly 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).
- (law) 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.
- (medicine) 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.
The translation tables below are a guide only. See individual words formed using this suffix for more precise translations.
forming words meaning a person who or a thing that does an action, especially where a passive sense of the verb is implied
law: forming words meaning a person who is the other party to a contract
medicine: forming words meaning a person who has undergone a particular medical procedure
irregularly added to nouns to mean a person somehow associated with the object denoted by the noun
Perhaps a variation on -ie and -y[1]
-ee
- (antonym(s) of “diminutive affix”): super-, supra-, hyper-, ultra-, uber-, macro-, arch-, over-, mega-, giga-, -zilla, grand, great
The translation table below is a guide only. See individual words formed using this prefix for more precise translations.
-ee
- (offensive, derogatory) Used in mimicking English as stereotypically spoken by the Chinese.
1897, The Outlook, volume 56, page 1044:
"No stealee. You no thinkee? Chinaman no thinkee stealee!" he said, earnestly.
1938, Minnesota Journal of Education, volume 19, page 52:
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?"
See -ea. With vowel assimilation.
-ee (colloquial or dialectal)
- Alternative form of -ea
- Predominant type in the Tavastian and Savonian dialects. Well preserved even in urban speech.
- Used in the same way as the standard -ea: e.g. korkee "high", standard korkea.
- Especially in the Savonian dialects, shorter words with the suffix are subject to consonant gemination: pimeä > pimmee.
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /e.e/, [eɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /e.e/, [eː]
-ee
From Old Irish -igidir (whence also Irish -igh and Scottish Gaelic -ich), originally a denominative verb formative, from Proto-Celtic *-sagyetor; compare Welsh -hau.
-ee
- Suffix used to form verbs from nouns.
- Affixed verbs ending in -ee form a sizeable number of verbs. Some monosyllabic verbs in Manx (which historically are not from affixes), however, are not a result of affixation, such as niee "to wash".
-ee
- adverbializing enclitic
- hashkéhee ― in a mean or angry way
- tąądee ― slowly, leisurely, gradually, little by little
- tʼáá ádíláahee ― in an annoying manner
- tʼáá łaʼ bizhiʼee ― united, all standing together
- tʼáá naʼńleʼee ― sloppily, carelessly, roughly
- tʼáadoo yistiʼee ― freely, boldly, without hesitation
- tʼáá nanitʼinee ― secretly, covertly
- tsʼísee kehgo ― physically, carnally