Le mot juste

Dear Bill:

Regarding the attendee/attender/participant issue raised in Vol. 2, No. 3, Webster's New World 1988 Dictionary gives "attendee" as a valid word, but the 1970 edition does not list it. Thus the word may be relatively new. Curiously, "symposiast" is a valid word (both in 1970 and 1988), and "conferee" was termed an Americanism in 1988, but was generally valid in 1970.