mentee

Word origin

Back-formation from mentor. Although mentor comes from Ancient Greek Μέντωρ (Méntōr), the name of a mythological figure, it was mistakenly analyzed as terminating in the suffix -or (“doer”), leading to a form using the French patientive suffix -ee on the model of pairs such as donor–donee and employer–employee. Attested since at least 1958.

Used in a sentence

• “Near-synonyms: apprentice, buddy (in training sense), intern, pupil, student, trainee”

• “The mentee occasionally teaches the class, regularly confers with students, conducts optional special study sessions, and relieves the professor of most clerical classroom functions”

• “[T]he two characters form a beautiful mentor-mentee relationship in which each derives tremendous strength from the other”

Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0