absentee
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See also: absentée
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]absentee (plural absentees)
- A person who is absent from his or her employment, school, post, duty, etc. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
- (chiefly British, historical) A landholder who lives in another district or country than the one in which his estate is situated. [First attested in the early 17th century.][1]
- 1840, Lord Byron, “Letter 374: to Mr. Moore (24 May 1820)”, in John Murray, editor, The Works of Lord Byron: With His Letters and Journals, and His Life, page 317:
- My trustees are going to lend Earl Blessington sixty thousand pounds (at six per cent.) on a Dublin mortgage. Only think of my becoming an Irish absentee!
- One that is nonexistent or lacking.
- A voter that is not present at the time of voting; absentee voter. [First attested in the early 20th century.][1]
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]person who is absent
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landholder who doesn't live where his estate is
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one that is nonexistent or lacking
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voter that is not present at the time of voting — see absentee voter
Adjective
[edit]absentee (not comparable)
- (attributive) Pertaining to someone who is absent, for example does not live in the relevant local area, sometimes implying that they are difficult to contact, unresponsive, avoiding their responsibilities, etc. [First attested in the mid 19th century.][1]
- absentee father, absentee landlord, absentee freeholder
Translations
[edit]pertaining to one who is absent
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References
[edit]- absentee in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
- “absentee”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “absentee”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “absentee”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 8.
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