Also 4 -ore, 5–8 -our. [a. L. trāditor deliverer, giver up, betrayer, agent-n. from trādĕre: see TRADIT. With traditour cf. F. traditeur (Froissart). See also TRAITOR.]
† 1. A betrayer, traitor. Obs. in general sense.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxii. (Laurentius), 654. Þat man, þat wald tak, & haf Vtheris menis gud with Iniquite, With Iudas traditore suld he be.
c. 1450. Maitland Cl. Misc., III. 200. Item ane pharatrum for the sacrament, Item a traditour for the passioun.
1536. in Bolton, Stat. Irel. (1621), 97. Thomas fitzGerald … who … like a most false disloyal traditour … rebelled against our sovereigne lord the king.
1681[?]. in Somers, Tracts, I. 114. These Traditors of the Gospel have deserted the Plain Paths of Righteousness.
1696. Bp. Compton, Charge, 7. He becomes a Traditor in selling his Duty for a Morsel of Bread.
a. 1711. Ken, Lett., Wks. (1838), 67. Yt they might not have a Latitudinarian Traditour imposed on them, who would betray ye baptismall faith.
1819. Metropolis, I. 14. To our sex, he is a very traditore, and has … planted thorns innumerable in the female breast.
2. Ch. Hist. One of those early Christians who in the great persecution under Diocletian, in order to save their own lives, delivered up their sacred books, vessels, etc., or betrayed their fellow-Christians: cf. TRADITION 2 b.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxii. § 7. There were in the Church it selfe Traditors, content to deliuer vp the Bookes of God by composition, to the end their owne liues might bee spared.
1634. ‘E. Knott,’ Charity Maintained, I. vi. § 17. Whom they falsly affirmed to haue been ordained Bishop by those who were Traditours, or giuers vp of the Bible to the Persecutors to be burned.
1728. H. Herbert, trans. Fleury’s Eccl. Hist., II. 17. The Donatists pretended to prove, that Felix the Bishop of Aptonga was a traditor.
1849. W. Fitzgerald trans. Whitaker’s Disput., 428. He says … that there was no traditor in that succession from Peter to Anastasius.
attrib. 1877. J. M. Fuller, in Dict. Chr. Biog., I. 886/2. Exhorting him to cleave to those who had left the traditor-church.
† 3. One who hands down a tradition. Obs. rare–1.
1638. Chillingw., Relig. Prot., I. iii. § 44. 153, note. Saving the respect of the Tradition … From whatsoever Traditor it comes.
Hence † Traditorian a. (obs. rare–1), † Traditorous a. (obs. rare–0, implied in † Traditorously adv.), traitorous, treacherous; Traditorship (Ch. Hist.), the action of a traditor.
a. 1734. North, Exam., III. viii. § 42 (1740), 615. The good Ignoramus Sherriff … stood up and maintained the City Rights against those *traditorian Court Slaves.
1536. in Bolton, Stat. Irel. (1621), 97. Who … rebelled against our soveraigne lord the king, intending most falsly and *traditorously to take the said land of Ireland out of his possession.
1877. J. M. Fuller, in Dict. Chr. Biog., I. 882/1. Not one present could claim to be free from *traditorship. One had thrown the gospels into the fire, another had offered incense to the gods, a third had delivered up small papers, but kept his codices. Ibid., 882/2. The emperor … subjected the alleged traditorship of Felix to a thorough examination (A. D. 313).
