Other forms: betrayals
Betrayal is breaking a trust that somebody placed in you. A sense of betrayal, an act of betrayal, feel the betrayal.
It requires the trust first, which is why a stranger cannot betray you and a friend can — and why the injury is different in kind from ordinary harm. Betrayal by a state or an institution is a recognised source of lasting damage, sometimes called institutional betrayal.
1nounbetrayalBreaking a trust that somebody placed in you.
“When her best friend told everyone her secret, it felt like a terrible betrayal.”
betrayal is a breaking of trust.
Proto-Germanic
*bi- — be-
Old English
be- — be-
Middle English
betrayen
English
betray
English, today
betrayal
Built from
From betray + -al. betray comes from Middle English betrayen, bitrayen (“to commit an act of treason against”), equivalent to be- + tray. bi- is from Old English be- (“be-”), from Proto-Germanic bi- (“be-”), from Proto-Germanic bi (“near, by”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₁epi (“at, near”). Compare also traitor, treason, tradition. The modern sense to disclose, discover, reveal unintentionally is due to influence from or merger with English bewray (“to reveal, divulge”), which is similar in sound and meaning. The similarity with German betrügen, Dutch bedriegen, from Proto-West Germanic bidreugan (“to betray, deceive”), is coincidental.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA