Cheatee

/tʃiːˈtiː/ noun

Definition

A person who is deceived or tricked by someone else; the victim of cheating.

Etymology

From 'cheat' (Middle English, from Old French 'escheat' meaning to revert to the crown) + suffix '-ee' (indicating the recipient of an action). The '-ee' suffix became productive in English around the 17th century to mark passive recipients.

Kelly Says

The word 'cheatee' perfectly mirrors 'employee' and 'payee' — English invented this neat suffix to flip perspective from 'who does it' to 'who receives it.' It's rare today because we usually just say 'victim,' but it shows how creative English speakers were in building agent nouns.

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