coughee

English

Etymology

From cough +‎ -ee.

Noun

coughee (plural coughees)

1. Someone who is coughed upon.

   Coordinate term: cougher

   You shuold cover your mouth when you cough so you don't spray spittle all over an unlucky coughee.

   • 1894 March 9, “The Second Day”, in The Fresno Weekly Republican, volume XVII, number 42, Fresno, C.A.: Fresno Republican Pub. Co, →OCLC, page 8, column 1:

     There was a disposition on the part of the bar yesterday to adopt a plan by which there should be a division of time between coughers and coughees, so to speak, so that one side or the other should be entitled to the floor half ihe time undisturbed by the other, with Judge Shaw for umpire.

   • 1978, Ric Masten, “To Cough”, in The Voice of the Hive, Monterey, C.A.: Palo Colorado Press, →ISBN, page 79:

     the coughees (usually plural) / are the ones who bend forward pretending / that nothing is happening but / whose interest / has left the front of the room and is now / down in a pocket wondering / if that stray lozenge / is still in there somewhere

   • 1997, Alex J. Packer, edited by Pamela Espeland, How Rude! The Teenagers' Guide to Good Manners, Proper Behavior, and Not Grossing People Out, Minneapolis, M.N.: Free Spirit Publishing, →ISBN, page 423:

     The lone cough, along with the minimal multiple cough, need not be recognized by cougher or coughee. The cougher must, however, make a loose fist with her hand and place it over her mouth.

   • 2022, Bill Gates, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, New York, N.Y., Toronto, Ont.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 107:

     Another group of researchers set two mannequins next to each other, simulated a cough from one of them, and then measured how many particles made it from the cougher to the coughee.)