4

I'm writing about impersonators and people being impersonated in general terms and having 'the impersonator' and 'the person being impersonated' is cumbersome at best.

'Impersonatee' sort of works, but isn't great. Any ideas?

Improve this question
6
  • 2
    How about victim?
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Sep 23, 2013 at 10:52
  • The 'owner-of-the-hair-whose-polyjuice-potion-the-impersonator-drank'? :)
    – mikhailcazi
    Sep 23, 2013 at 10:54
  • 2
    Victim is good except for the negative connotation
    – Peter Coulton
    Sep 23, 2013 at 10:58
  • Original can work, but I don't think it fits for people.
    – Kobi
    Sep 23, 2013 at 11:20
  • 2
    Target is more neutral than victim. Or something along the lines of role or identity. That being said, -ee is productive, and impersonatee would be universally understood.
    – RegDwigнt
    Sep 23, 2013 at 15:14

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
4

Subject
The person being depicted or portrayed by a painter, an artist, or in this case an impersonator.

The impersonator's favourite subjects were politicians and well-known singers.

Edit
One of Britain's most famous and loved impersonators during the 1970s and early '80s was Mike Yarwood. Yarwood enjoyed stratospheric popularity in the years when British television only had three channels. In the wikipedia page dedicated to the entertainer the term, subjects, is used.

Most of his most famous subjects, such as Heath and Wilson, retired from public life or died and he was unable to master new prominent figures, most significantly, the country's first woman Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Improve this answer
7

I really think that you can make do with good old nominal adjectives, which act almost like nouns.

In the sentence, "I read two books to them; he preferred the sad book, but she preferred the happy", happy is a nominal adjective, short for "happy one" or "happy book".

Therefore: the impersonated.

I don't see why you've all decided to ignore that. How is the impersonated less of a noun than impersonatee or impersonate?

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Would impersonated indicate that it happened in the past? Whereas the proposed impersonatee would be indifferent to the tense? I'm unsure myself, just a conversation piece.
    – Alex KeySmith
    Feb 7, 2014 at 10:23
1

"Impersonatee" should be considered a technical term. I have scoured the internet and it is used in places like Wikipedia, Oracle, SAP,CA Technologies. It seems to be mostly used to describe a user within an computer application that will be impersonated by an administrator. This is used to help troubleshoot/debug for customer service when a user is having a problem with that application. I vote to add this to the dictionary.

Example from Oracle's Fusion Middleware Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal:

WebCenter Portal Impersonation lets a WebCenter Portal administrator or system administrator assign impersonation rights to a group of users ("impersonators"), such as support representatives or application administrators, so that they can perform operations as other users ("impersonatees"). Note that this is subject to the impersonatee granting the impersonator additional rights to impersonate them.

Improve this answer
2
  • Hi Tony, and welcome to our site. If you've found references to the word, please cite them in your answer, preferably with both examples and links. We rely on this added reference material to be able to distinguish between mere opinion (and perhaps incorrect opinion at that) and an authoritative answer. For further guidance, see How to Answer. Make sure you also take the Tour :-)
    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Monica
    Nov 7, 2018 at 4:33
  • To whom are you submitting this vote, Tony?
    – Davo
    Apr 17, 2019 at 11:04
0

I can think of character or personality. Advise if wrong.

Improve this answer
0

imitatee - "One that is imitated" (from Merriam-Webster)

Admittedly, that's the only mainstream online dictionary I can find it in, but it may be in larger print dictionaries.

Improve this answer
4
  • My copy of the American Heritage Dictionary (which is 2100 pages long, approx, with a spine-length of about a foot) does not have 'imitatee'. :)
    – mikhailcazi
    Sep 23, 2013 at 14:14
  • I just checked the OED; it returned: No dictionary entries found for ‘imitatee’. It's certainly not a common word.
    – J.R.
    Sep 23, 2013 at 17:27
  • Imitatee is a technical term. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574936 psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1935-04184-001 Not really used for impersonators.
    – dcaswell
    Sep 23, 2013 at 20:04
  • As I suspected.
    – Phil M Jones
    Sep 24, 2013 at 9:20
0

You can call them a model.

The dictionary definition of model applicable in this instance is

a person or thing that serves as a subject for an artist, sculptor, writer, etc.

a standard to be imitated: she was my model for good scholarship

eg. Elvis is a popular model for impersonators.

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    My first thought was, "Wait! A model is something you try to copy or replicate, not impersonate," but then I thought, "Well, impersonators certainly try to copy..." Still, this answer sounds not-quite-right for some reason. It vexes me, but in a very good way.
    – J.R.
    Sep 23, 2013 at 17:34
  • It's probably a good choice for certain examples (like entertainers) but not others (like identity theft).
    – Bradd Szonye
    Sep 24, 2013 at 21:06

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.