traitor

• traitour (obsolete)

From Middle English traitor, traitour, traytour, from Old French traïtor (French traître), from Latin trāditor. Displaced native Middle English swike from Old English swica (“traitor”), and Middle English proditour and traditour borrowed directly from Latin. The general Old English word denoting "traitor" was lǣwa or lǣwend. Doublet of traditor.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹeɪtə(ɹ)/
• (US) enPR: trā′tər, IPA^(key): /ˈtɹeɪtɚ/, [ˈtʰɹeɪɾɚ]
• Homophone: trader (in dialects with flapping)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

traitor (plural traitors)

1. Someone who violates an allegiance and betrays their country; someone guilty of treason; one who, in breach of trust, delivers their country to an enemy, or yields up any fort or place entrusted to their defense, or surrenders an army or body of troops to the enemy, unless when vanquished.

   After World War I, the communists and Jews were accused to be traitors by the German right wing (the "stab-in-the-back myth"), ultimately culminating in their persecution and massacre.

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     My Lord of Hereford here whom you call King, / Is a foule traitour to proud Herefords King, / And if you crowne him let me propheſie, / The bloud of Engliſh ſhall manure the ground, / And future ages groane for this foule act, [...]

   • 2017 October 8, “Confederacy” (14:45 from the start), in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver‎^[1], season 4, episode 26, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     Yes, that was Vice President Spiro Agnew commemorating the "loyalty" of literal traitors. But what can you really expect from a man whose name rearranged spells "grow a penis."

2. Someone who takes arms and levies war against their country; or one who aids an enemy in conquering their country.
3. (by extension) One who betrays any confidence or trust.
   • 2019, Patricia Taxxon, “Cold Water”, in Doraemon:

     It's second nature now to think myself a traitor
     To myself, to all I've ever burdened with my rotting visage
     I can't breathe, the weight of all I've disappointed crushes me
     If I were happy, it would feel as if I couldn't trust me

   • 2021, Olivia Rodrigo, Dan Nigro, “Traitor”, in Sour‎^[2], performed by Olivia Rodrigo:

     It took you two weeks
     To go off and date her
     Guess you didn't cheat
     But you're still, you're still a traitor
     Yeah, you're still a traitor

• (all senses): Benedict Arnold (US), quisling, Judas
• (one who betrays a trust): betrayer, fink, snake, snake in the grass

• race traitor; see also Thesaurus:informant

traitor (third-person singular simple present traitors, present participle traitoring, simple past and past participle traitored)

1. To act the traitor toward; to betray; to deceive.

traitor (comparative more traitor, superlative most traitor)

1. Traitorous.
   • 1735, Alexander Pope, “The Second Satire of Dr. John Donne”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London: […] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC:

     to find a subject staid and wise
     Already half turn'd traitor by surprise

• traïtor

Adaptation of Latin trāditor, trāditorem.

traitor oblique singular, m (oblique plural traitors, nominative singular traitre, nominative plural traitor)

1. traitor
   • c. 1180, Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la charrette:

     Ne croire pas ce traïtor.

     Do not believe this traitor.

• traïson

• French: traître
• Norman: traître (Jersey)
• Walloon: traite
• → Middle English: traytour, traitour, traitor
  • English: traitor
  • → Middle Irish: trétúir
    • Irish: tréatúir

From Latin trāditor, trāditorem.

traitor m (oblique plural traitors, nominative singular traitors, nominative plural traitor)

1. traitor

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “traditor”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 13: To–Tyrus, pages 152–153