How the word ‘hostage’ used to mean something quite different to its modern definition, as the Israel-Gaza war rumbles on
- The word ‘hostage’ has complex semantics, with its meaning in 13th century Old French encompassing kindness and hospitality
- The frequency of the word’s usage declined from the late 18th century, but started increasing from the 1970s due to several occurrences of hostage situations
The world is now all too familiar with the meaning of a hostage – a person seized by force, and held as security, in order to force other parties to comply with the taker’s demands. Common associations are with domestic situations, terrorist incidents and diplomatic crises.
The word “hostage” has complex semantics. Coming from the 13th century Old French ostage or hostage, its several meanings are quite contrary to that of the modern-day word, encompassing kindness and hospitality, as well as residence, dwelling and also rent, tribute, compensation, guarantee and pledge.
Some accounts suggest that the Old French ostage/ hostage might have emerged from hoste, meaning “guest, host, landlord”, deriving from the Latin hospitem (nominative hospes) for “guest, stranger, sojourner, visitor”.
The more likely source for the Old French ostage/ hostage, however, is the Latin obsidātus, referring to the condition of being held as security, which derives from obsess, composed of ob-, “before”, and the base of sedere, “to sit” – in other words, one who stays behind with the enemy.
An early meaning of hostage in French, which entered English in the late 13th century (obsolete from the 18th century), was the pledge or security given to enemies or allies for the fulfilment of any undertaking by the handing of one or more persons into their power.
This reflects the meaning of hostageship in earlier eras, with precursors already observed in Rome, Persia and pre-Islamic Arabia, in cases of surrenders and armistices, for good faith. The Romans were accustomed to holding the sons of tributary princes as security for the continued loyalty of the conquered nation.
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Old French usage tended to be in verbal phrases such as prendre en hostage, “to take in residence, lodge”, in reference to the lodging of a person as surety. The meaning of hostage then transferred to the state of such a person, and finally to the actual person.
The frequency of the use of the word hostage – which had seen a decline from the late 18th century – starts increasing from the 1970s, due to several occurrences of hostage situations in those decades.
Returning to the Latin hospitem, “guest, stranger, sojourner, visitor” – hence also “foreigner” – it is instructive to note its roots in the Proto Indo European *ghos-pot-. This is a compound meaning “guest-master”, from roots *ghos-ti-, “stranger, guest, host”, and *poti-, “powerful, lord”, which encompasses a notion of someone with whom one has reciprocal duties of hospitality.
