treason

treason

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹiː.zən/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːzən

Noun

treason (countable and uncountable, plural treasons)

1. The crime of betraying one’s own country.
   • c. 1605, John Harington, “42: Of Treason”, in Epigrams (British Library Additional MS. 12049)‎, Book III, folio 75, verso; republished at London: British Library Digitised Manuscripts, 17 September 2020:

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

   • 1787 September 17, Alexander Hamilton [et al.], “Article III, Section 3”, in Constitution of the United States‎, Philadelphia: Jacob Shallus:

     Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unleſs on the Testimony of two Witneſses to the same overt Act, or on Confeſsion in open Court.

   • 1964 November 1, Richard J. Hofstadter, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics”, in Robert Shnayerson, editor, Harper's Magazine, New York City: Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company:

     If for every error and every act of incompetence one can substitute an act of treason, many points of fascinating interpretation are open to the paranoid imagination: treason in high places can be found at almost every turning.

2. An act of treachery, betrayal of trust or confidence.

Synonyms

• betrayal
• perfidiousness
• perfidy
• treacherousness
• treachery

Derived terms

• high treason
• petit treason/petty treason
• treasonable
• treasonableness
• treasonably
• treasonist
• treasonistic
• treasonistically
• treasonous
• treasonously
• treasonousness

 

Related terms

• traitor
• traitorlike
• traitorly
• traitorous
• traitorously
• traitorousness

 

Translations

crime of betraying one’s country

Albanian: tradhti (sq) f Arabic: خِيَانَة‎ f (ḵiyāna) Armenian: դավաճանություն (hy) (davačanutʿyun), մատնություն (hy) (matnutʿyun) Azerbaijani: xəyanət (az) Belarusian: здра́да f (zdráda) Bulgarian: измя́на (bg) f (izmjána), преда́телство (bg) n (predátelstvo), издайство n (izdajstvo), издайничество (bg) n (izdajničestvo) Burmese: အတွင်းရန် (my) (a.twang:ran) Catalan: traïció (ca) f Cebuano: pagluib, pagbudhi Chinese: Mandarin: 背叛 (zh) (bèipàn), 叛國罪／叛国罪 (zh) (pànguózuì), 叛國／叛国 (zh) (pànguó), 出賣／出卖 (zh) (chūmài) Czech: velezrada (cs) f, vlastizrada f, zrada f Danish: forræderi n, landsforræderi n Dutch: verraad (nl) n, hoogverraad (nl) n, landverraad (nl) n Esperanto: perfido Estonian: reetmine Finnish: valtiopetos (fi), maanpetos (fi), petos (fi), pettäminen (fi) French: trahison (fr) f Galician: traizón f Georgian: ღალატი (ɣalaṭi) German: Verrat (de) m, Landesverrat (de) m Greek: προδοσία (el) f (prodosía) Ancient: προδοσία f (prodosía) Hebrew: בְּגִידָה \\ בגידה‎ (he) f (bgidá) Hindi: विश्वासघात (hi) m (viśvāsghāt), राज-द्रोह m (rāj-droh) Hungarian: árulás (hu), hitszegés (hu) Icelandic: landráð (is) n pl, svik (is) n pl, föðurlandssvik (is) n pl Ido: trahizo (io) Indonesian: pengkhianatan (id) Irish: tréas m Italian: tradimento (it) m Japanese: 反逆 (ja) (はんぎゃく, hangyaku), 裏切り (うらぎり, ​uragiri) Kazakh: сатқындық (satqyndyq), опасыздық (opasyzdyq) Khmer: ការក្បត់ (kaa kbɑt) Korean: 배신(背信) (ko) (baesin), 배반 (ko) (baeban) Kyrgyz: чыккынчылык (ky) (çıkkınçılık) Lao: ການຂາຽຊາດ (kān khāi sāt) Latin: prōditiō f Latvian: nodevība f Lithuanian: išdavystė (lt) f Macedonian: предавство n (predavstvo) Malay: pengkhianatan Malayalam: രാജ്യദ്രോഹം (rājyadrōhaṃ) Maori: kaikaiwaiūtanga, kaikaiwaiū Mongolian: урвалт (mn) (urvalt) Norman: trahison f (Jersey) Norwegian: Bokmål: landssvik n, forræderi n, landsforræderi n, høyforræderi n Nynorsk: landssvik n, forræderi n, landsforræderi n Pashto: خيانت‎ (ps) m (xyānát) Persian: خیانت‎ (fa) (xiyânat) Polish: zdrada (pl) f Portuguese: traição (pt) f Romanian: trădare (ro) Russian: госуда́рственная изме́на (ru) f (gosudárstvennaja izména), преда́тельство (ru) n (predátelʹstvo), изме́на (ru) f (izména) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: и̏здаја f, ѝзда̄јство n Roman: ȉzdaja (sh) f, ìzdājstvo n Slovak: zrada f Slovene: izdaja (sl) f, izdajstvo n Spanish: traición (es) f Swedish: förräderi (sv) n, landsförräderi (sv) n Tajik: хиёнат (tg) (xiyonat), хоинӣ (tg) (xoyinī), ғаддори (ġaddori) Tamil: துரோகம் (ta) (turōkam) Telugu: ద్రోహం (te) (drōhaṁ) Thai: การกบฏ (th) (gaan-gà-bòt), การขายชาติ (th) (gaan-kǎai-châat) Turkish: ihanet (tr), hainlik (tr) Turkmen: haýynlyk, dönüklik Ukrainian: зра́да f (zráda), державна зрада f (deržavna zrada), держзрада f (deržzrada) Uyghur: ساتقۇنلۇق‎ (satqunluq) Uzbek: hiyonat, xoinlik (uz), sotqinlik (uz) Vietnamese: sự phản bội (vi) (sự (vi) + 反背) Volapük: trät (vo)

providing aid and comfort to the enemy

Arabic: خِيَانَة‎ f (ḵiyāna) Armenian: դավաճանություն (hy) (davačanutʿyun), մատնություն (hy) (matnutʿyun) Bulgarian: колаборационизъм (kolaboracionizǎm) Catalan: col·laboracionisme m, quintacolumnisme m Cebuano: pagbudhi Chinese: Mandarin: 背叛 (zh) (bèipàn), 叛國罪／叛国罪 (zh) (pànguózuì), 叛國／叛国 (zh) (pànguó) Czech: kolaborace (cs) f Danish: kollaboration c Dutch: verraad (nl) n Finnish: maanpetos (fi) Galician: traizón f Greek: προδοσία (el) f (prodosía) Ancient: προδοσία f (prodosía) Italian: collaborazionismo (it) m, connivenza (it) f Japanese: 裏切り (うらぎり, uragiri) Macedonian: предавство n (predavstvo) Malayalam: ഒറ്റ് (ml) (oṟṟŭ) Polish: kolaboracja (pl) f Portuguese: colaboração (pt) f Russian: изме́на (ru) f (izména), преда́тельство (ru) n (predátelʹstvo) Spanish: colaboración con el enemigo f, colaboracionismo m Swedish: förräderi (sv) n

act of treachery

Bulgarian: измяна (bg) f (izmjana), предателство (bg) n (predatelstvo) Catalan: traïció (ca) f French: trahison (fr) Galician: traizón f Spanish: traición (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Georgian: (please verify) ღალატი (ɣalaṭi) Korean: (please verify) 반역 (ko) (banyeok), (please verify) 물신 (mulsin) Telugu: (please verify) దేశద్రోహం (dēśadrōhaṁ)

See also

• sedition

References

• treason at OneLook Dictionary Search
• treason in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• treason in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Anagrams

• Santore, Senator, anteros, asteron, atoners, nor'-east, nose art, noseart, one-star, orantes, ornates, roneats, rotanes, santero, seatron, senator, tenoras

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Middle English

Noun

treason

1. Alternative form of tresoun