Conscriptee

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual who is compulsorily enrolled by the government to serve in the armed forces
2. A person drafted into military duty by a mandatory call-up rather than volunteering
3. One who is required by law to join the military for a specific period as part of national service

Etymology: Conscription comes from Latin "conscribere", meaning "to enroll" or "to write together," built from "con-" (together) and "scribere" (to write). A conscript was originally someone formally written onto a list, and the "-ee" suffix, borrowed from Anglo-Norman French, marks the person on the receiving end of an action, as in "employee" or "trainee." So a conscriptee is simply the one whose name has been put on the list. The suffix does the work here. English took "-ee" from French forms such as "-é," and it attaches to verbs to name the person affected by the verb's action. Adding it to "conscript" gives a term for the individual the state has enrolled, rather than the one who volunteered for service.

Synonyms: draftee