absentee

absent +‎ -ee

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌæb.sn̩ˈti/
• Rhymes: -iː

• Audio (Southern England)

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absentee (plural absentees)

1. A person who is absent from his or her employment, school, post, duty, etc. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
2. (chiefly British, historical) A landholder who lives in another district or country than the one in which his estate is situated. [First attested in the early 17^th century.][1]
   • 1840, Lord Byron, “Letter 374: to Mr. Moore (24 May 1820)”, in John Murray, editor, The Works of Lord Byron: With His Letters and Journals, and His Life, page 317:

     My trustees are going to lend Earl Blessington sixty thousand pounds (at six per cent.) on a Dublin mortgage. Only think of my becoming an Irish absentee!

3. One that is nonexistent or lacking.
4. A voter that is not present at the time of voting; absentee voter. [First attested in the early 20^th century.][1]

• absenteeism

absentee (not comparable)

1. (attributive) Pertaining to one that is absent. [First attested in the mid 19^th century.][1]

• absentee in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• “absentee”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “absentee”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.