Although a little bit ‘geeky’, I must admit to being quite excited this week when the UK Supreme Court, albeit unwittingly, ‘settled’ a dispute between some linguistic heavyweights. The scrap was about whether people who live together should be referred to as ‘cohabitees’ or ‘cohabitants’. The latter is the correct construction grammatically, although I can promise you that almost every single lawyer in the country, and many Judges, regularly use the former!
Now we can’t be too pompous about this, but the suffix -ee usually denotes a person who is the recipient rather than the doer or the giver. Hence employees have jobs, trainees receive training and lessees hold leases. However, English is a language that is splendidly rebellious. It makes the rules to break them! There are therefore plenty of –ee words which denote the doer. Attendee and escapee are really good examples. Also some –ee words can denote doer as well as receiver, depending on the context. Refugee is an example of this – one who already has refuge or one who is seeking refuge. Some –ee words just completely catch us out! A mortgagee is the institution that has given the mortgage, rather than the person who has received it!
For my part, I will continue to act for cohabitees!
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