treason: [13] Treason and tradition are doublets – they have a common source. This was Latin trāditiō, a derivative of trādere ‘hand over, deliver’ (source also of English traitor). The notion of ‘handing something on to someone else’ lies behind tradition, but treason (acquired via Anglo-Norman treisoun) gets its meaning from the metaphorically extended Latin sense ‘hand over treacherously, betray’. => betray, tradition, traitor
treason (n.)
c. 1200, "betraying; betrayal of trust; breech of faith," from Anglo-French treson, from Old French traison "treason, treachery" (11c.; Modern French trahison), from Latin traditionem (nominative traditio) "a handing over, delivery, surrender" (see tradition). Old French form influenced by the verb trair "betray." In old English law, high treason is violation by a subject of his allegiance to his sovereign or to the state; distinguished from petit treason, treason against a subject, such as murder of a master by his servant. Constructive treason was a judicial fiction whereby actions carried out without treasonable intent, but found to have the effect of treason, were punished as though they were treason itself. The protection against this accounts for the careful wording of the definition of treason in the U.S. Constitution.
双语例句
1. Treason in this country is still punishable by death.
在这个国家，叛国仍然是可判死罪的。
来自柯林斯例句
2. They were shot yesterday after being convicted of mutiny and high treason.
在被宣判犯有叛乱罪和叛国罪后，他们昨天被枪决了。
来自柯林斯例句
3. He was executed for treason.
他因叛国罪被处死。
来自《权威词典》
4. The public prosecutor charged treason against the prisoner.
