hostage
/ˈhɒstɪdʒ
/- The blasts also triggered chaos inside the building, which a number of hostages seized upon as their cue to escape.
- Most of the child hostages who were seized by terrorists were reported to be alive.
- Yes, we cannot really impose on him a condition to leave his family behind as hostages.
Synonyms
Phrases
hostage to fortune
Origin
Middle English: from Old French, based on late Latin obsidatus 'the state of being a hostage' (the earliest sense in English), from Latin obses, obsid- 'hostage'.
The word hostage has no connection with host (see hospital) in any of its uses—it goes back to Latin ob ‘towards, against’ and sedere ‘to sit’, used to mean ‘the state of being a hostage’. Originally an ally or enemy would hand over a hostage as security for the fulfilment of an undertaking. Now hostages are ‘taken’ as well as ‘held’, and are very seldom handed over voluntarily. In a hostage to fortune, the word fortune means ‘fate’, with the idea being that future events are no longer under a person's control but in the hands of fate. In a rather jaundiced reflection on marriage the English philosopher Francis Bacon wrote in 1625: ‘He that hath wife and children, hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue, or of mischief.’
- breakpoint
- break rank
- break rank (or ranks)
- breaks
- break ship
- break someone in
- break someone's fall
- break someone's heart
- break (someone's) serve (or service)
- break someone up
- break something down
- break something in
- break something off
- break something open
- break something out
- break something up
- Breakspear, Nicholas
- break step
- break sweat (or break a sweat)
- break the back of
- break the bank
- break the ice
- break the mould
- break through
- breakthrough