Because delegatee was underlined by Word, I was told it wasn't a real word. We've been talking about "what makes a word a word" here since the inception of this discussion board - and to think, that answer was so easy. Just put it into Word to see if it's underlined or not. Clearly epicaricacy would not be a word.

At any rate, what are your thoughts? Is delegatee a real word, or a made up one, as my colleague says? I did find it in 7 dictionaries in Onelook. However, my library's OED database was down so I couldn't check it out there. I always consider that my gold standard.

Delegatee means 'one to whom something is delegated' and differs slightly in meaning from delegate, 'One who is delegated'.

Google Chrome's spellcheck also underlined the word, by the way.

Yes, that was how we were using it, arnie. Is it a word that is used in the England? We are using it for some nursing guidelines we are writing on delegating. There is the nurse who delegates the care, and then the person who accepts the work, or the delegatee.