MUGGEE NOUN (PEOPLE AND SOCIETY)

The victim of a mugging; a person who is or has been mugged. Etymology: Formed by adding the suffix -ee, denoting the person affected by an action, to the verb mug, 'to rob violently, especially in a public place'. History and Usage: The word has been used in US English (which tends to form nouns in -ee more freely than UK English) since the early seventies. With the increasing problem of street muggings in the eighties, and the difficulty of finding an alternative word for the victim, it has spread beyond the US to other parts of the English-speaking world. Have the muggees, the majority of whom are white, no right to be protected against muggers? Spectator 28 Nov. 1981, p. 4 After proving four were tougher than one the muggers drove off and the muggee went home to bed. Brisbane Telegraph 9 Apr. 1987, p. 14