fwiw

used in technical terms of Eng. law, was orig. an adaptation of the -é of certain AF. pa. pples., which were used as ns. The existence in legal AF. of pairs of correlative words like apelour appellor, apelé appellee, seems to have led in the first place to the invention of words in -ee parallel to those agent-nouns in -or which had been adapted in legal use from AF.; and subsequently the terminations -or and -ee were freely added to Eng. vb.-stems to form ns., those in -or denoting the agent, and those in -ee the passive party, in such transactions as are the object of legislative provision. The derivatives in -ee, however, unlike the AF. participial ns. after which they were modelled, have not usually a grammatically passive sense, but denote the ‘indirect object’ of the vbs. from which they are derived. Thus vendee is the person to whom a sale is made, indorsee the person in whose favour a draft, etc. is indorsed, lessee the person to whom property is let. With still greater departure from the original function of the suffix, payee denotes the person who is entitled to be paid, whether he be actually paid or not. In a few cases the suffix has been appended, not to a verb-stem in Eng. or AF., but to a Latin ppl. stem etymologically related to an Eng. n., as in legatee, a person to whom a legacy has been bequeathed.
2. The use of this suffix in law terms has been freq. imitated in the formation of humorous (chiefly) nonce-words, as jestee, cuttee, educatee, laughee, sendee, denoting the personal object of the verbs from which they are formed.
3. In a few words, as bargee, devotee, the suffix is employed app. arbitrarily.
4. -ee also appears in the English spelling of certain ns. adopted from mod. F. ppl. ns. in -é, as debauchee, refugee.