birding-aus

Escapers versus wild birds.

To: "Susan Knowles" <>, "birding aus" <>
Subject: Escapers versus wild birds.
From: "Philip A. Veerman" <>
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2003 17:16:21 +1000
Yes I know about that, even without looking at a dictionary. The point I was making is that if you think of escaping as a process, that is something escapes from something else. Then by common logic and by analogy to words such as mortgagor & mortgagee, the one who escapes should be called the escaper, not the escapee. Therefore the other party, the one to whom an escape happens, that is the prior captor, should be called the escapee, although the word is never used in that sense. 
 
Of course something that makes a habit of escaping would be an escapist.
 
By the way, I have been kindly corrected on my wrong spelling of "DEFINATELY".
 
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Knowles <>
To: <>
Date: Monday, 4 August 2003 10:00
Subject: Re: [BIRDING-AUS] Re; Escapers versus wild birds.

As a librarian I can't let this go without comment.  The Macquarie
Dictionary is certainly not the best quality dictionary around, being
based (I understand) on 2 American college dictionaries - nobody
starts a dictionary these days from scratch.

Just look up the verb "destruct" and ask yourself how Australian is this.

Escapee is acceptable for one who has escaped just by virtue of
usage.  The Oxford dictionary gives this with the first example going
back to 1875.  Escaper is older but is not in current usage.

Susan Knowles


>Well, seeing this is an Australian newsgroup, the Macquarie
>Dictionary is the bible.
>
>Its definition of escapee is "n. one who has escaped, as from
>internment, imprisonment, etc".  So feel free to continue to refer
>to birds that have escaped from captivity as escapees.
>
>To be fair, the Maquarie also lists escaper as the noun of escape.
>For what it is worth, the latin basis for escape is ex cappa -> ex
>cloak.
>
>Regards, Laurie.
>
>
>
>On Saturday, August 2, 2003, at 06:08  PM, Paul Walbridge wrote:
>
>>Philip Veerman wrote;
>>
>>By the way, the plural of escapee is escapees, DEFINATELY NOT
>>escapee's (which only makes sense followed by a noun, to mean some
>>property of the escapee). Also by usual grammar, one who escapes
>>should be called an escaper (even if that word is not generally
>>used). The escapee is the one to whom an escape occurs, that is the
>>prior owner. If the bird is released, the bird is a releasee and
>>the person releasing it is a releaser.
>>

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