The word traitor appears five times in Animal Farm and is always used in conjunction with Snowball. The first time we hear it is when Napoleon tells the other animals that Snowball, earlier chased off the farm by the dogs on Napoleon's orders, is a "traitor" who "has crept here" and destroyed the windmill. In this same speech, Napoleon refers to Snowball a second time as a "traitor." Boxer, who accepts that Snowball is a traitor, will at one point contest the idea that Snowball started out as a "traitor," saying he fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed. (Napoleon will be afraid to go after Boxer.) The fourth time, it is spoken in reference to the so-called traitorous pigs and hens just executed for (supposedly) being incited by Snowball and finally, Napoleon uses it to justify changing the commandment that forbids one animal to kill another, for "clearly there was good reason for killing the traitors who had leagued themselves with Snowball."
Since Snowball's original "traitorous" act was to oppose Napoleon's will to power, the word "traitor" carries the connotation that anyone who disagrees with Napoleon is by definition a traitor. It also indicates that Snowball will be used as the excuse for anything Napoleon wants to do: if he wants to kill another animal or change a law, he simply needs to say it is necessary to stop "traitors" like Snowball. The term traitor carries the connotation of "any animal who opposes Napoleon in any way" because Napoleon has seized control of the animals and made his will the law.
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