Bailees

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person or entity to whom property is entrusted for a specified purpose
2. The individual responsible for holding or caring for someone else's goods while awaiting their return or disposition
3. An authorized custodian who receives property with the obligation to return it or dispose of it as directed by the owner

Etymology: "Bailees" is simply the plural of "bailee," a person to whom goods are temporarily handed over under a bailment arrangement. The word is built from "bail," which came into English from Old French "bailler," meaning "to deliver" or "to hand over," and the suffix "-ee," borrowed through French from Latin "-atus" and used to mark the person on the receiving end of an action. So a bailee is literally the one who is given something, while the bailor is the one who gives it. The "bail" in "bailee" is not the same word as the bail paid to secure a prisoner's release, though the two are often confused. Legal bail, in the sense of posting money to free someone, comes from the same Old French root, so the two meanings are linked by the idea of handing something over into another's keeping, but they have developed separately in English. The legal sense of bailment, which the word describes, stays close to the original notion of delivering goods into temporary custody.

Synonyms: lessee