Traditors

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who betray their comrades or cause by renouncing their faith or allegiance under pressure ; those who surrender sacred items or knowledge to enemies in acts of treachery ; people who commit acts of disloyalty by abandoning principles or promises during times of conflict
2. Persons who abandon their religious or political group by handing over key documents or betraying secrets ; those seen as collaborators who forsake their duties by yielding to opposing forces ; individuals notorious for violating trust through deliberate apostasy or betrayal in critical moments
3. Characters who forsake a community or belief by surrendering important symbols or persons to adversaries ; individuals branded as faithless for breaking oaths and betraying allies ; those regarded as traitors due to their recantation and cooperation with hostile parties under coercion

Etymology: "Traditors" is the plural of "traditor," a word that kept a Latin sense of betrayal that English later passed to a more familiar relative. The Latin "trāditor" meant "betrayer" and came from "trādere," "to hand over," so the core idea is simply the act of delivering something or someone into an enemy's hands. That physical handing-over is what the word still carries: the term fits people who surrendered sacred objects, allies, or companions to opponents. English gained "traditor" as a learned borrowing directly from Latin, and it is a doublet of "traitor," the everyday word that arrived through Old French. Both descend from the same Latin root, but "traitor" was worn smooth by long use in speech, while "traditor" stayed a bookish term, reserved for historians and writers discussing particular betrayals.

Synonyms: betrayers, traitors, turncoats, renegades, defectors

Antonyms: loyalists, patriots, supporters, allies, defenders