treasonable 的词源

约1200年，treisoun，treson，“背叛；信任的背叛；不忠，信仰的违反”，来自盎格鲁法语treson，源自古法语traison“叛国，背叛”（11世纪；现代法语trahison），来自拉丁语traditionem（主格traditio）“交付，投降，传递，放弃”（西班牙语traicion的来源），名词形式来自过去分词词干tradere“交付，交出”，来自trans“过”（参见trans-）+ dare“给予”（来自原始印欧词根*do-“给予”）。是tradition的双生词。古法语形式受到动词trair“背叛”的影响。

Vpon Thursday it was treason to cry God saue king James king of England, and vppon Friday hye treason not to cry so. [Thomas Dekker, "The Wonderfull Yeare 1603"]

在古英语法中，high treason（约1400年）是指臣民违反对王冠或国家最高权力的效忠（其中high的意思是“严重的”）；与petit treason区分，后者是指对臣民的叛国罪，例如仆人谋杀主人，伪造等。Constructive treason是一种司法虚构，即在没有叛国意图的情况下进行的行为，但被认定为具有叛国效果的行为，被惩罚为真正的叛国。这解释了美国宪法中对叛国罪定义的谨慎措辞。

Lord George Gordon was thrown into the Tower and was tried before Lord Mansfield on the charge of high treason for levying war upon the Crown. The charge ... rested upon the assertion that the agitation which he had created and led was the originating cause of the outrages that had taken place. As there was no evidence that Lord George Gordon had anticipated these outrages, as he had taken no part in them, and had even offered his services to the Government to assist in their suppression, the accusation was one which, if it had been maintained, would have had consequences very dangerous to public liberty. [W.E.H. Lecky, on the Gordon Riots (1780), in "History of England in the Eighteenth Century"] 

中古英语中也有作为动词，treisounen（14世纪中期），“背叛，将敌人交给敌人之手”。

英语形容词的常见词尾和构词元素（通常基于及物动词），具有“能够；易于；允许；值得；需要；或必然被______”的意义，有时表示“充满，导致”，来自法语-able，直接源自拉丁语-abilis。

它实际上是-ble，来自拉丁语-bilis（元音通常来自被后缀动词的词干结尾），代表原始印欧语*-tro-，一个用于形成工具名词的后缀，与英语rudder和saddle（名词）的第二个音节同源。

在英语中是一个活跃的元素，用于从拉丁语或本土词汇中形成新词（readable, bearable），也用于名词（objectionable, peaceable）。有时具有主动意义（suitable, capable），有时具有中性意义（durable, conformable）。到20世纪，它的意义变得非常灵活，如在reliable witness，playable foul ball，perishable goods中。17世纪的一位作家使用了cadaverable“致命的”。

To take a single example in detail, no-one but a competent philologist can tell whether reasonable comes from the verb or the noun reason, nor whether its original sense was that can be reasoned out, or that can reason, or that can be reasoned with, or that has reason, or that listens to reason, or that is consistent with reason; the ordinary man knows only that it can now mean any of these, & justifiably bases on these & similar facts a generous view of the termination's capabilities; credible meaning for him worthy of credence, why should not reliable & dependable mean worthy of reliance & dependence? [Fowler]

以一个详细的例子来说，只有一个合格的语言学家才能判断reasonable是来自动词还是名词reason，也无法确定其原始意义是可以推理出来的，还是可以推理的，或者可以与之推理的，或者有理性的，或者听从理性的，或者与理性一致的；普通人只知道它现在可以意味着这些中的任何一个，并且合理地基于这些和类似的事实对词尾的能力持宽容的看法；credible对他来说意味着值得信任，为什么reliable和dependable不可以意味着值得依赖和信任呢？[Fowler]

在拉丁语中，-abilis和-ibilis取决于动词的屈折元音。因此在古法语、西班牙语、英语中有变体形式-ible。在英语中，-able倾向于用于本土（和其他非拉丁）词汇，-ible用于明显拉丁语起源的词（但也有例外）。拉丁语后缀在词源上与able没有联系，但长期以来一直被大众与之联系，这可能促成了它作为一个活跃后缀的活力。