Bailee

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual or organization entrusted with the custody of property for a designated task
2. A party that receives assets or goods from another for specific reasons and is responsible for their care
3. A person or organization legally entrusted with the possession of goods or property for safekeeping or a specific purpose

Etymology: "Bailee" is a legal term for the person who receives goods held in trust under a bailment arrangement, such as the warehouse that stores your furniture or the repair shop holding your watch. Its history runs through a chain of word-formation that is easy to miss. English "bail" came into the language from Anglo-Norman and Old French "bailler," meaning "to hand over" or "to deliver," which in turn came from Latin roots tied to carrying and handing things over. The ending "-ee" is the interesting part. It was borrowed through Old French "-ée" and Latin "-ātus," a suffix marking the person on the receiving end of an action. English adopted it in this way, and in Middle English it became a productive way to name the recipient of an act. So "bailee" literally means "one who is handed something," the mirror image of the "bailor," who does the handing over. Bailee is formed from "bail" plus "-ee," a combination that shows how English reshaped French legal vocabulary into a neat pair of partners.

Synonyms: custodian, trustee