hostage
noun
[ ˈhɒstɪdʒ ]
• a person seized or held as security for the fulfilment of a condition.
• "three hostages were released but only after their families paid an estimated $200,000 to the guerrillas"
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’.
