"To be retired" vs. "to be a retiree" vs. "to be a retirant"

Question

Are both of these responses in current use in modern day AE to the question:

What's your job?

Is it

I don't have a job, I'm retired.

Or

I don't have a job, I'm a retiree.

Also, does the term of "retirant" have any currency in modern day AE?

Source: source>/

David M · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-09 00:16:37Z

4

I've not heard retirant used and my spellcheck immediately rejected it.

The other two are good. Retired is an adjective and retiree is a noun. I am retired is the more common in AmE.

answered Mar 9, 2014 at 0:16

David M

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3

Right. (Be) retired is the intransitive predicate, and retiree is the (rather official and pedantic) intransitive absolutive nominalization. Retirant would draw a blank stare in the US -- though some might guess it referred to the villains in a Dr. Who episode.
– John Lawler
Mar 9, 2014 at 0:46
I've never heard the word "retirant" either. It made me think of a dictator that had been kicked out of his country, and is now living in comfortable but boring exile.
– Mike Baranczak
Mar 9, 2014 at 6:23

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