Hostage - Definitions from Dictionary.com

6 results for: Hostage

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

hos·tage

Audio Help [hos-tij] Pronunciation Key noun, verb, -taged, -tag·ing.

–noun

1.	a person given or held as security for the fulfillment of certain conditions or terms, promises, etc., by another.

2.	Archaic. a security or pledge.

3.	Obsolete. the condition of a hostage.

–verb (used with object)

4.	to give (someone) as a hostage: He was hostaged to the Indians.

[Origin: 1225–75; ME < OF hostage (h- by assoc. with (h)oste host²), ostage ≪ VL *obsidāticum state of being a hostage < L obsid- (s. of obses) hostage (equiv. to ob- ob- + sid- sit) + -āticum -age

]

—Related forms

hos·tage·ship, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Hostage

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

hos·tage Audio Help (hŏs'tĭj) Pronunciation Key
n.

A person held by one party in a conflict as security that specified terms will be met by the opposing party.
One that serves as security against an implied threat: superpowers held hostage to each other by their nuclear arsenals.
One that is manipulated by the demands of another: "National policies cannot be made hostage to another country" (Alan D. Romberg).

[Middle English, from Old French, probably from host, guest, host; see host¹.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
hostage

c.1275, from O.Fr. hostage "person given as security or hostage," either from hoste "guest" (see host (1)) via notion of "a lodger held by a landlord as security," or from L.L. obsidanus "condition of being held as security," from obses "hostage," from ob- "before" + base of sedere "to sit." Modern political/terrorism sense is from 1970s.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

hostage
noun
a prisoner who is held by one party to insure that another party will meet specified terms

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
hostage [ˈhostidʒ] noun

a person who is held prisoner in order to ensure that the captor's demands etc will be carried out
Example: The terrorists took three people with them as hostages; They took / were holding three people hostage.

Arabic:	رَهينَه
Chinese (Simplified):	人质
Chinese (Traditional):	人質
Czech:	rukojmí
Danish:	gidsel
Dutch:	gijzelaar
Estonian:	pantvang
Finnish:	panttivanki
French:	otage
German:	die Geisel
Greek:	όμηρος
Hungarian:	túsz
Icelandic:	gísl
Indonesian:	sandera
Italian:	ostaggio

Japanese:	人質
Korean:	인질
Latvian:	ķīlnieks
Lithuanian:	įkaitas
Norwegian:	gissel
Polish:	zakładnik
Portuguese (Brazil):	refém
Portuguese (Portugal):	refém
Romanian:	ostatic
Russian:	заложник
Slovak:	rukojemník
Slovenian:	talec
Spanish:	rehén
Swedish:	gisslan
Turkish:	rehine

See also: take, hold (someone) hostage

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Hostage

Hos"tage\, n. [OE. hostage, OF. hostage, ostage, F. [^o]tage, LL. hostaticus, ostaticum, for hospitaticum, fr. L. hospes guest, host. The first meaning is, the state of a guest, hospitality; hence, the state of a hostage (treated as a guest); and both these meanings occur in Old French. See Host a landlord.] A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or stipulations of any kind, on the performance of which the person is to be released.

Your hostages I have, so have you mine; And we shall talk before we fight. --Shak.

He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune. --Bacon.

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