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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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