# Is "mentee" (the subject of a mentor's attention) a real word historically? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 11, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mentee-the-subject-of-a-mentors-attention-a-real-word-historically/154241 "2003-02-11T00:15:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mentee-the-subject-of-a-mentors-attention-a-real-word-historically/154241/21 "2003-02-11T15:09:55Z")
Great. But tyros have nothing to do with the mentoring process, per se, right? ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mentee-the-subject-of-a-mentors-attention-a-real-word-historically/154241/22 "2003-02-11T15:37:25Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by garius_ > thinking about it actually - if you were to accept mentor as a verb In the three organizations I’ve been in during the last 10 years, mentor _has_ been commonly used as a verb. As in “I’m mentoring John” or “I’m going to mentor Susan.” And, per the OP, the associated nouns that are used are mentor and mentee. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mentee-the-subject-of-a-mentors-attention-a-real-word-historically/154241/23 "2003-02-11T15:46:15Z")
OK, so we have assignor and assignee, payor and payee, but what about harbor? Why no harbee? Manor–manee? Tractor–tractee? Actor–actee? Rotor–rotee? And if we have goatees, why no goators? What’s with English, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mentee-the-subject-of-a-mentors-attention-a-real-word-historically/154241/24 "2003-02-11T15:54:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RM Mentock \* > \*\*You mean, maybe find it in a dictionary somewhere? \*\* no really??? wow! thanks! didn’t think of that!!! see i can be sarcastic too. 😉 In seriousness I don’t actually have a decent one at work - and i don’t really trust [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) (for the record it does class Mentor as a verb but only _informally_). > [@](#): > > \*\* > Why not use the less cumbersome mentee? Such abbreviating is done in language all the time. But I think they should pronounce it ment-_ock_. \*\* I wasn’t suggesting that you couldn’t. It was just that my gut feeling that grammatically just because you could say: employer → employ → employee didn’t meant that you could therefore say: mentor → mentor or (“ment” 🙂 ) → mentee that was all. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mentee-the-subject-of-a-mentors-attention-a-real-word-historically/154241/25 "2003-02-11T16:16:31Z")
Does grammar have anything to do with it? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mentee-the-subject-of-a-mentors-attention-a-real-word-historically/154241/26 "2003-02-11T18:14:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RM Mentock \* > \*\*Does grammar have anything to do with it? \*\* It does if you’re a grammee. 😃 I’m just going to reiterate my earlier objection to “standee.” At least most other -ee words denote the object of a transitive verb. For example, an employee is a person who is employed. An addressee is one who is addressed. And, if you must, a mentee is one who is mentored. But standee? One who is standed? I don’t think so. No, in the perverse logic that created this word a standee is one who stands. Surely that should be stander? I refuse ever to use this word, except to denigrate it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mentee-the-subject-of-a-mentors-attention-a-real-word-historically/154241/27 "2003-02-12T23:31:46Z")
Originally posted by **auliya** > [@](#): > > I have never heard of a “mentee”, perhaps it is uniquely American I’m American and I’ve never heard it used. Even though it’s in my dictionary, I don’t believe it’s a real word and I will never us it. Mentoree sounds better and I think it’s really not that cumbersome. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mentee-the-subject-of-a-mentors-attention-a-real-word-historically/154241.md?page=1)