| 释义 |
▪ I. hostage, n.1|ˈhɒstɪdʒ|
Also 4–7 ostage.
[a. OF. ostage (11th c.), hostage (12–16th c. in Littré; Cotgrave 1611, hostage and ostage), mod.F. otage, = Pr. ostatge, OCat. hostatge, OSp. hostage, It. ostaggio, going back through *obstāticum, to a late pop.L. type *obsidāticum, f. L. obsidātus condition of a hostage, hostageship, f. obses, obsidem hostage. The initial h appears to have been added in OF., etc., through association with the family of L. hospit-em: see host n.2 Cf. med.L. ostāticum, hostāticum in sense 1, hostāticus, ostagius, hostagius, in sense 2 (Du Cange).]
†1. Pledge or security given to enemies or allies for the fulfilment of any undertaking by the handing over of one or more persons into their power; the standing, state, or condition of the persons thus handed over; chiefly in phrases in, into, to hostage. (No plural.) Obs.
c1275Lay. 5317 Hii wolleþ habbe hure children to hostage [c 1205 ȝisle]. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 399/231 Heo and manie oþer in ostage weren itake. a1300Cursor M. 4987 Þijs oþer ten..Duel in ostage her wit me. a1420Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3680 There was a maide sent hym into hostage. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 432 b/1 He was ledde..with hys two brethren in ostage or pledge for the delyueraunce of the sayd kyng theyr fader. a1533Ld. Berners Huon lxv. 223 Your brother layd hostage, promysynge that he wolde neuer retourne without he brought with hym y⊇ admyrall Gaudys berde. 1555Eden Decades 80 Violatinge the lawe of hostage. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. iv. iv. 105 If he stand in Hostage for his safety. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 6 [They] desired one or two of our men to goe ashoare, leaving hostage in our ship for their safe returne. 1726–31Tindal Rapin's Hist. Eng. (1743) II. xvii. 97 To give the young King..in Hostage to the Queen.
2. (with pl.) A person thus given and held in pledge. Cf. hostager.
c1275Lay. 20909 Four and twenti hostages [c 1205 ȝisles] Childrich þar bitahte. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 78 William..gaf ageyn þo fees, of whilk he toke ostages. 1520Caxton's Chron. Eng. v. 46 b/1 Upon assuraunce of this same thynge they gave him good hostages. 1579Fenton Guicciard. iii. (1599) 101 He laboured secretly that the Genoways should not deliuer in their ostages to the King. 1665Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 85 He..kept the Prince of Aurange's Son..as an Hostage for his Fathers Actions. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. III. 225 Ambassadors..to solicit the exchange of hostages. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. IV. xviii. 155 [At the siege of Exeter in 1068] one of the hostages was brought close to the East Gate, and his eyes were put out in the sight of both armies. 1879Froude Cæsar xvi. 254 They had given hostages for their good behaviour.
3. generally. A pledge or security. spec. in phr. to give, etc., a hostage to fortune: to deliver one's future happiness, success, etc., into the hands of fate.
c1400Rom. Rose 7312 Though ye borowes take of me, The sikerer shal ye never be For ostages, ne sikirnesse, Or chartres. 1597Daniel Civ. Wars ii. xxiii, The ost of Christ, an ostage for his troth. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. ii. 115 You know now your hostages: your Vnckles word and my firme faith. 1607–12Bacon Ess., Marriage (Arb.) 264 He that hath wife and children, hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impedimentes to great enterprizes, either of vertue, or of mischief. 1732T. Fuller Gnomologia 253 Wife and Children are Hostages given to Fortune. 1865Whittier Snow-bound 483 One who wisely schemed, And hostage from the future took In trained thought and lore of book. 1875M. E. Braddon (title) Hostages to fortune. 1934J. E. Neale Queen Elizabeth xiv. 235 But to enter on war was to give hostages to fortune. Her instinct was to gamble on avoiding it. 1950W. S. Churchill Second World War IV. i. xi. 194 Once several good outfits are prepared, any one of which can attack a Japanese-held base or island and beat the life out of the garrison, all their islands will become hostages to fortune. 1965Listener 4 Nov. 728/2 Every manufacturer who indulges in advertising is giving a hostage to fortune in that he is inviting public confidence in his goods and service, and he will rapidly go out of business if he cannot live up to his claims. 1968Ibid. 28 Nov. 710/2 Denmark was almost a hostage to fortune by being in Nato at all.
†4. A treaty to which parties are pledged. rare.
1470–85Malory Arthur x. xxx, And there with alle was made hostage on bothe partyes, and made hit as sure as hit myghte be.
5. attrib.
1905Westm. Gaz. 26 Sept. 8/2 The hostage camps [in the Gaboon]. 1909Daily Chron. 18 Nov. 1/7 The dragging of a man to the hostage house [in the Congo]. 1931H. G. Wells Work, Wealth, & Happiness of Mankind (1932) vii. 275 Here all over again were the murders, the mutilations..the hostage houses, and the atrocities.
Hence ˈhostage v. trans., to give as a hostage.
1624Capt. Smith Virginia iv. 158 Nor is it likely now they would have so hostaged their men..had they intended any villany.
▪ II. † ˈhostage, n.2 Obs.
[a. OF. (h)ostage:—late L. type *hospitāticum, f. hospes, hospit-em host n.2: see -age. (Med.L. had hospitāgium and hostāgium, from Fr.)]
A hostel, hostelry, inn. Also attrib.
c1440Ipom. 1292 His owne mayde, that was so bryght, To his ostage she went right. c1450Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 147 Ostage in this towne know I non, Thin wyff and thou in for to slepe. 1547Boorde Introd. Knowl. xxxii. (1870) 205, I, hauynge pitie.. poynted them to my hostage. a1828Willie Wallace x. in Child Ballads (1882–98) III. 271 He's on to the hostage gone Asking there for charitie. Ibid. iv, Fifteen lords in the hostage-house Waiting Wallace for to see. 1852Act 15 & 16 Vict. cxxxvi. Preamb. (Hull Shipping Dues), Certain Dues called..Hostage Dues. |