(law)Used to form words meaning a person who is the other party to acontract or othertransaction involving a person described by the corresponding word ending in-or.
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
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Most likely derived from broken English used by Chinese immigrants to America during the 17th to 19th centuries. The -ee wasadded by those speakers for final consonants in English words that do not exist in Cantonese phonology.
(offensive,derogatory)Used in mimicking English as stereotypically spoken by the Chinese.
1897,The Outlook, volume56, page1044:
"Nostealee. You nothinkee? Chinaman nothinkee stealee!" he said, earnestly.
1938,Minnesota Journal of Education, volume19, page52:
A Chinaman had a toothache, and phoned a dentist for an appointment. Doctor: "Two-thirty all right?" Chinaman: "Yes, toothhurtee, all light. What time I come?"
Affixed verbs ending in-ee form a sizeable number of verbs. Some monosyllabic verbs in Manx (which historically arenot from affixes), however, arenot a result of affixation, such asniee "to wash".
