single word requests - Synonym for observee


I'm looking for a synonym for observee, i.e. something that is observed. The word observee doesn't seem be used much, so I would like to have a more common word if it exists.


I need to use it in a very abstract sense, so my example sentence doesn't get more concrete than this: "The observer watched the observee very closely."



Answer



You may be able to reuse some terminology from software world here.


There is a standard software design pattern called Observer and its terminology may help. Quoting wikipedia:



The observer pattern is a software design pattern in which an object, called the subject, maintains a list of its dependents, called observers, and notifies them automatically of any state changes, usually by calling one of their methods.



Also there is a Observable interface which may be implemented by observable objects. Quoting its description:



An observable object can have one or more observers.



[I know subject was a previous answer but I think this was too long as a comment.]


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