treason

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The crime of betraying one’s own country.

   Treaſon doth never [pro]ſper: what's the reaſon? / For yf yt [pro]ſper none dare call yt treaſon.

2. 2
   noun

   an act of deliberate betrayal

3. 3
   noun

   a crime that undermines the offender's government

4. 4
   noun

   disloyalty by virtue of subversive behavior

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Treason entered English in the Middle English period and comes from the same root as tradition and traitor: Latin tradere, “to deliver” or “hand over,” formed from trans-, “across,” and dare, “to give.” Its underlying sense is the act of handing over.

From Middle English tresoun, treison, from Anglo-Norman treson, from Old French traïson (“treason”), from trair, or from Latin trāditiō (“a giving up, handing over, surrender, delivery, tradition”), from trādō (“give up, hand over, deliver over, betray”, verb), from trāns- (“over, across”) + dō (“give”). Doublet of tradition.

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