Licencee

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A individual who has been formally authorized through a license to carry out a particular activity or use a protected product
2. Someone who holds official permission, granted by a licensing body, to operate under specific rights or conditions
3. The holder of a license, meaning the party legally allowed to exercise rights that the license grants

Etymology: "Licencee" is a variant spelling of "licensee," the person who is granted a licence. It is built from "licence," a noun from Old French "licence" (permission, liberty), itself from Latin "licentia," and the suffix "-ee," which in English marks the recipient of an action, as in "employee" or "payee." The pattern "-ee" entered English through Anglo-Norman French, where "-é" forms such as "absenté" denoted someone acted upon, and it became a productive way to name a person who receives a grant, appointment or permission. The spelling "licencee" keeps the British "c" of "licence" rather than the "s" used in "licensee." Both spellings are in use, with "licensee" being the more common form in American English and in most modern legal writing. The two forms are interchangeable in meaning, so a reader meeting either one is looking at the same person: someone who holds a licence to do something that would otherwise be forbidden.

Synonyms: licensee