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Ashok
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 12:08 am
Post subject: attendee |
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When I first came across the word "attendee", I took it for
granted that it meant "one who is looked after", analogous
to "payee". By that logic, the word for "one who attends
an occasion" should be "attender". How does the use of
"attendee" to mean the latter come about? Is it an Americanism?
Are there other verbs like that?
Ashok
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ray o'hara
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:08 am
Post subject: Re: attendee |
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"Ashok" <adhareshwar@hotNO_SPAMmail.com> wrote in message
news:3oluhcF6gs6mU1@individual.net...
| Quote: | When I first came across the word "attendee", I took it for
granted that it meant "one who is looked after", analogous
to "payee". By that logic, the word for "one who attends
an occasion" should be "attender". How does the use of
"attendee" to mean the latter come about? Is it an Americanism?
Are there other verbs like that?
Ashok
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Logic be damned. |
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Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:46 am
Post subject: Re: attendee |
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ray o'hara wrote:
Hear, hear! (This is English after all).
--
WH
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:50 am
Post subject: Re: attendee |
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Ashok spake thusly:
| Quote: | When I first came across the word "attendee", I took it for
granted that it meant "one who is looked after", analogous
to "payee". By that logic, the word for "one who attends
an occasion" should be "attender". How does the use of
"attendee" to mean the latter come about? Is it an Americanism?
Are there other verbs like that?
|
Retiree - one who retires.
Escapee - one who escapes.
Abscondee - one who absconds.
I'm sure there are loads more.
--
David
=====
replace usenet with the |
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Alan Jones
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 2:06 am
Post subject: Re: attendee |
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"Ashok" <adhareshwar@hotNO_SPAMmail.com> wrote in message
news:3oluhcF6gs6mU1@individual.net...
| Quote: | When I first came across the word "attendee", I took it for
granted that it meant "one who is looked after", analogous
to "payee". By that logic, the word for "one who attends
an occasion" should be "attender". How does the use of
"attendee" to mean the latter come about? Is it an Americanism?
Are there other verbs like that?
|
It's not an Americanism - we say that in BrE, too. There are other
examples - NSOED cites several at the entry for "-ee". There's standee
(someone who has to stand rather than getting a seat), divorcee (whether her
husband divorced her or vice versa), patentee, devotee, escapee . .
Some passive -ee words have a matching active word: payee/payer,
legatee/legator (NSOED comments that such words are often legal terms).
Many -ee words don't, since they are related to intransitive verbs.
Alan Jones |
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Mark in Stumptown
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 2:35 am
Post subject: Re: attendee |
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On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 20:06:16 GMT, "Alan Jones" <atj@blueyonder.co.uk>
wrote:
| Quote: |
"Ashok" <adhareshwar@hotNO_SPAMmail.com> wrote in message
news:3oluhcF6gs6mU1@individual.net...
When I first came across the word "attendee", I took it for
granted that it meant "one who is looked after", analogous
to "payee". By that logic, the word for "one who attends
an occasion" should be "attender". How does the use of
"attendee" to mean the latter come about? Is it an Americanism?
Are there other verbs like that?
It's not an Americanism - we say that in BrE, too. There are other
examples - NSOED cites several at the entry for "-ee". There's standee
(someone who has to stand rather than getting a seat), divorcee (whether her
husband divorced her or vice versa), patentee, devotee, escapee . .
Some passive -ee words have a matching active word: payee/payer,
legatee/legator (NSOED comments that such words are often legal terms).
Many -ee words don't, since they are related to intransitive verbs.
Alan Jones
I should think that 'divorcee' does not properly belong to this set, |
because of the derivation from the French. There is an acute accent
over the first 'e' in the French, less commonly in AmE.
Webster's online has:
Main Entry: di·vor·cée
Pronunciation: d&-"vOr-'sA, -"vor-, -'sE, -'vOr-", -'vor-"
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from feminine of divorcé, past participle of
divorcer to divorce, from Middle French divorse
To my ear the most grating coinage of this sort is 'mentee', as a
younger person who stands in a relationship to a mentor, thus Judge
Roberts in younger days to Justice Rehnquist. One could say he was
his mentor's telemachus, I suppose.
Mark
Portland, OR
--
Mark
Portland, OR, USA
for e-mail, sabocat at labordefense dot org |
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Peter Duncanson
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:05 am
Post subject: Re: attendee |
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On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 19:50:28 GMT, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com>
wrote:
| Quote: | Ashok spake thusly:
When I first came across the word "attendee", I took it for
granted that it meant "one who is looked after", analogous
to "payee". By that logic, the word for "one who attends
an occasion" should be "attender". How does the use of
"attendee" to mean the latter come about? Is it an Americanism?
Are there other verbs like that?
Retiree - one who retires.
Escapee - one who escapes.
Abscondee - one who absconds.
I'm sure there are loads more.
|
There are some people who would insist:
Retirer - one who is about to, or in the process of, retiring.
Retiree - one who has retired.
Escaper - one who is <ditto> escaping.
Escapee - one who has escaped.
Absconder - one who is <ditto> absconding.
Abscondee - one who has absconded.
(Don't ask how evacuee and refugee fit this pattern!)
--
Peter Duncanson
UK (posting from a.e.u) |
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ray o'hara
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 7:00 am
Post subject: Re: attendee |
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"Ashok" <adhareshwar@hotNO_SPAMmail.com> wrote in message
news:3oluhcF6gs6mU1@individual.net...
| Quote: | When I first came across the word "attendee", I took it for
granted that it meant "one who is looked after", analogous
to "payee". By that logic, the word for "one who attends
an occasion" should be "attender". How does the use of
"attendee" to mean the latter come about? Is it an Americanism?
Are there other verbs like that?
Ashok
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Oh. I forgot to mention 'attendant' is the word for one who looks after
someting. |
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Robert Lieblich
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:00 am
Post subject: Re: attendee |
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ray o'hara wrote:
| Quote: |
"Ashok" <adhareshwar@hotNO_SPAMmail.com> wrote in message
news:3oluhcF6gs6mU1@individual.net...
When I first came across the word "attendee", I took it for
granted that it meant "one who is looked after", analogous
to "payee". By that logic, the word for "one who attends
an occasion" should be "attender". How does the use of
"attendee" to mean the latter come about? Is it an Americanism?
Are there other verbs like that?
Logic be damned.
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Same to you, ray.
It appears that no one has bothered to give the OP a useful answer.
So here's a useful answer, and if he hasn't already left in disgust it
may even do him some good:
Click on this URL: <http://www.bartleby.com/61/61/E0046100.html>.
Read material that appears on your monitor. Thank me.
--
Bob Lieblich
Why do I bother? |
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