hostage

Meaning

Noun

1. A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.
2. A person seized in order to compel another party to act (or refrain from acting) in a certain way, because of the threat of harm to the hostage.
3. Something that constrains one's actions because it is at risk.
4. One who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat; one who is not free to choose their own course of action.
5. The condition of being held as security or to compel someone else to act or not act in a particular way.

Verb

1. (nonstandard, possibly) To give (someone or something) as a hostage to (someone or something else).
2. (nonstandard, possibly) To hold (someone or something) hostage, especially in a way that constrains or controls the person or thing held, or in order to exchange for something else.

Synonyms

captive

pledge

prisoner

surety

pawn

gage

Translations

otage

rehén

Geisel

ostaggio

gijzelaar

όμηρος

refém

garant

obses

rehine

ostatge

prisonnier

tutak

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: hostage

In summary

From Middle English hostage, ostage, from Old French hostage, ostage. This, in turn, is either from Old French hoste (“host”) + -age (in which case the sense development is from taking someone into "lodging" to taking them into "captivity", to applying the term to a captive), or is from Vulgar Latin obsidāticum (“condition of being held captive”), from Latin obses (“hostage, captive”), with the initial h- added under the influence of hoste or another word. Displaced native Old English ġīsl.