in legal language, "person to whom a thing is granted," late 15c., from grant (v.) + -ee.
Entries linking to grantee
grant v.
in early use also graunt, early 13c., "to allow, permit (something); consent to (a prayer, request, etc.)," from Old French graanter, variant of creanter "assure, promise, guarantee, swear; confirm, authorize, approve (of)," from Latin credentem (nominative credens), present participle of credere "to believe, to trust" (see credo). From c. 1300 as "transfer possession of in any formal way." Meaning "admit to be true, acknowledge" in English is from c. 1300; hence to take (something) for granted "regard as not requiring proof" (1610s). The irregular change of -c- to -g- in Old French is perhaps from influence of garantir. Related: Granted; granting.
-ee
word-forming element in legal English (and in imitation of it), representing the Anglo-French -é ending of past participles used as nouns (compare -y (3)). As these sometimes were coupled with agent nouns in -or, the two suffixes came to be used as a pair to denote the initiator and the recipient of an action.
Not to be confused with the French -ée that is a feminine noun ending (as in fiancée), which is from Latin -ata.