Releasee

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who is granted a release from confinement or obligation; someone who has had legal or contractual restraints removed; an individual freed from responsibilities or encumbrances in a particular context
2. An individual who is liberated from a commitment, such as in a legal agreement; a party no longer bound by a contract or governmental restrictions; someone exempt from certain duties or liabilities
3. A person experiencing a formal discharge from a contract or legal obligation; an individual who is allowed to withdraw from a specific responsibility; one who is set free from prior commitments or agreements

Etymology: "Releasee" is a plain formation: the noun "release" with the suffix "-ee," which English uses to name the person on the receiving end of an action. An employee is someone employed, a payee someone paid, and a releasee is the person to whom a release is granted, the one who is set free or whose obligation is discharged. The pattern follows the legal sense of "release" as a formal giving-up of a claim or restraint, which is why the word is most at home in contracts and settlements. The suffix itself came into English from Anglo-Norman and Old French, where "-ee" marked the passive participle of verbs ending in "-er," so "employé" and "payé" became "employee" and "payee." English then took the ending as a productive tool, attaching it to whatever verb a speaker needed, and many of its formations are legal or commercial. The same suffix gives us "lessee," "grantee," and "trustee," all built the same way.

Synonyms: dischargee, liberated person