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[andrewducker]

[Poll #1414841]

Comments

[andrewducker]

I can't seem to track down why both words exist - anyone got any clues?

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

One describes a person, the other an action (first and second respectively).

[andrewducker]

That would indicate that you have treasonable people and treasonous acts. Which would disagree with The Treasonable Practices Act, but that was passed in 1795, so their English might be outdated.

I'd have thought that treasonous people and treasonable acts made more sense, but that's purely instinct talking.

Googling all sixcombimations gives me:

	Treasonable	Treasonous
Acts	6910	17100
People	523	907
Behaviour	459	1140

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Treasonable acts, treasonous behaviour. I am not sure about people. I think they may be treasoners.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

or traitors? I had no idea about the difference bewtween treasonable and treasonous. I spent way too long today wondering why it was Surveyor and not Surveyer. anyone?

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Same reason it's Inspector and not Inspecter, obviously :)

(in other words, I have no idea!)

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

The -er suffix to denote an agent derives from Old English, whilst -or comes from Latin via French. 'Survey' is a borrowing from French, so naturally attracts the French form.

[cybik.livejournal.com]

You have my brother's email address, right? ;)

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

The OED says 'treasonists'. There's no entry for 'treasoner'.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

Yes.

A quick scan of the OED suggests that the terms are mutually interchangeable. They both exist because there is more than one way of forming adjectives. Evidently in this case neither has been able to fully drive the other out of use (though I'd reckon 'treasonous' is winning at the moment).

It may be that the two adjectives are formed from different words. The Latin derived -ous suffix is principally (though not exclusively) a means of adjectivizing nouns, whilst the French derived -able adjectivizes verbs. There is a verb 'treason', though it's rare now, and perhaps that explains the existence of 'treasonable'. However, the OED says its derived from the noun. There is also 'treasonful', which again doesn't seem to have a significant difference in meaning from the others.

[andrewducker]

Thank you - very useful. I shall forward it on to the person who was arguing that treasonous wasn't a 'real' word :->

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

'Treasonable' seems to be the slightly more antique formation, but only by about a hundred years or so (fourteenth century vs. fifteenth).

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Noo!

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say treasonous, I think I'd want to say treacherous.