assassinee

English

WOTD – 22 November 2023

Etymology

From assassin(ate) +‎ -ee (suffix forming nouns meaning people or things to whom or to which actions are done).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈsæsɪniː/, /əˌsæsɪˈniː/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈsæsəni/, /əˌsæsəˈni/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: (one pronunciation) -iː
• Hyphenation: as‧sas‧sin‧ee

Noun

assassinee (plural assassinees)

1. (nonstandard, often humorous) One who is assassinated.

   Synonym: assassinatee

   • 1924 March, A[ubrey] Wyatt Tilby, “A Study in Life Values”, in The Nineteenth Century and After: A Monthly Review, volume XCV, number DLXV, London: Constable & Company […], →OCLC, footnote 1, page 462:

     In some ways I regret the failure to arrive at a definite conclusion, but it has provided me with an extremely interesting list of suicides and assassinees that includes such great names as Hannibal, [Julius] Cæsar, [Thomas] More, [Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of] Strafford, [Robert] Clive, [Maximilien] Robespierre and [Robert Stewart, Viscount] Castlereagh.

   • 1941, The Spectator: A Weekly Review of Politics, Literature, Theology, and Art, volume 167, London: F. C. Westley, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 228, column 1:

     The general rule, I suppose, is that if the assassinee is deep enough sunk in turpitude the assassin may secure an honourable place in history.

   • 1953, A[bbott] J[oseph] Liebling, “The Navasota Murder”, in The Honest Rainmaker: The Life and Times of Colonel John R. Stingo, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, →OCLC; republished in Liebling at Home, New York, N.Y.: Wideview Books, 1982, →ISBN, page 311:

     On entering the city room, I was met by the managing editor, who asked me if I knew that the assassinee’s brother-in-law owned the money behind the paper. The family had had the story jerked, and had managed to keep it out of every other paper in the city.

   • 1958 October 24, Graham Greene, chapter 1, in Our Man in Havana: An Entertainment, London: The Reprint Society, published 1960, →OCLC, part IV, section I, page 119:

     "Who was it?" / "They haven't caught him yet." / "I mean the—the assassinee." / "Nobody important. But he looked like the Minister. Where did you have supper?"

   • 2007, Robert George Cooper, Thailand beyond the Fringe, Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, →ISBN, page 25:

     On the even brighter side, if the rubbed-out would-be reader were a person of some note, the assassination might merit some free widespread publicity resulting in a rush to buy and read what was so thoughtfully tucked under the armpit of the assassinee at the moment the fatal bullet struck home.

Translations

(nonstandard, often humorous) one who is assassinated

• Finnish: salamurhan uhri
• French: assassiné (fr) m, assassinée (fr) f
• Macedonian: у́биен m (úbien), уби́ена f (ubíena)
• Swedish: mordoffer (sv) n
• Welsh: llofruddiedig m or f

Further reading

• assassination on Wikipedia.Wikipedia