hostage

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• Received-Pronunciation: /ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/
  Play
• General-American: /ˈhɑs.tɪd͡ʒ/
  Play
• US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play
• CMU ARPABET: HH AA1 S T IH0 JH Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  Play

From Middle English hostage, ostage, from Old French hostage, ostage. This, in turn, is either from Old French hoste (“host”) + -age (in which case the sense development is from taking someone into "lodging" to taking them into "captivity", to applying the term to a captive), or is from Vulgar Latin obsidāticum (“condition of being held captive”), from Latin obses (“hostage, captive”), with the initial h- added under the influence of hoste or another word. Displaced native Old English ġīsl.

120 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Afrikaans: gyselaar — person given as a pledge or security
• Albanian: peng — person given as a pledge or security
• Arabic: رَهِينَة (rahīna) — person given as a pledge or security
• Armenian: պատանդ (patand) — person given as a pledge or security
• Assamese: ওল (ül) — person given as a pledge or security
• Azerbaijani: girov — person given as a pledge or security
• Bashkir: аманат (amanat) — person given as a pledge or security
• Belarusian: зало́жнік (zalóžnik) — person given as a pledge or security
• Belarusian: зало́жніца (zalóžnica) — person given as a pledge or security
• Belarusian: закла́днік (zakládnik) — person given as a pledge or security
• Belarusian: закла́дніца (zakládnica) — person given as a pledge or security
• Bulgarian: зало́жник (zalóžnik) — person given as a pledge or security
• Bulgarian: зало́жничка (zalóžnička) — person given as a pledge or security
• Bulgarian: зало́жница (zalóžnica) — person given as a pledge or security
• Burmese: ဓားစာခံ (dha:cahkam) — person given as a pledge or security
• Catalan: ostatge — person given as a pledge or security
• Chinese Cantonese: 人質 /人质 (jan4 zi3) — person given as a pledge or security
• Chinese: 人質 /人质 (zh-min-nan) — person given as a pledge or security
• Chinese Mandarin: 人質 /人质 (rénzhì) — person given as a pledge or security
• Chinese Mandarin: 俘虜 /俘虏 (fúlǔ) — person given as a pledge or security
• Czech: rukojmí — person given as a pledge or security
• Danish: gidsel — person given as a pledge or security
• Dutch: gijzelaar — person given as a pledge or security
• Esperanto: ostaĝo — person given as a pledge or security
• Estonian: pantvang — person given as a pledge or security
• Finnish: panttivanki — person given as a pledge or security
• French: otage — person given as a pledge or security
• Galician: refén — person given as a pledge or security
• Galician: arrafén — person given as a pledge or security
• Georgian: მძევალი (mʒevali) — person given as a pledge or security
• German: Geisel — person given as a pledge or security
• Greek: όμηρος (ómiros) — person given as a pledge or security
• Ancient Greek: ὅμηρος (hómēros) — person given as a pledge or security
• Haitian Creole: otaj — person given as a pledge or security
• Hebrew: בֶּן עֲרֻבָּה (ben arubá) — person given as a pledge or security
• Hebrew: בַּת עֲרֻבָּה (bat aruba) — person given as a pledge or security
• Hindi: बंधक (bandhak) — person given as a pledge or security
• Hungarian: túsz — person given as a pledge or security
• Icelandic: gísl — person given as a pledge or security
• Indonesian: sandera — person given as a pledge or security
• Interlingua: hostage — person given as a pledge or security
• Interlingua: ostage — person given as a pledge or security
• Irish: brá — person given as a pledge or security
• Irish: giall — person given as a pledge or security
• Irish: geall — person given as a pledge or security
• Irish: banna — person given as a pledge or security
• Old Irish: gíall — person given as a pledge or security
• Italian: ostaggio — person given as a pledge or security
• Japanese: 人質 (hitojichi) — person given as a pledge or security
• Kazakh: аманат (amanat) — person given as a pledge or security
• Khmer: ចំណាប់ខ្មាំង (cɑmnap khmang) — person given as a pledge or security
• Korean: 인질 (injil) — person given as a pledge or security
• Korean: 볼모 (bolmo) — person given as a pledge or security
• Northern Kurdish: rehîne — person given as a pledge or security
• Kyrgyz: заложник (zalojnik) — person given as a pledge or security
• Kyrgyz: барымта (barımta) — person given as a pledge or security
• Kyrgyz: аманат (amanat) — person given as a pledge or security
• Lao: ຕົວຈໍານໍາ (tūa cham nam) — person given as a pledge or security
• Latin: obses — person given as a pledge or security
• Latvian: ķīlnieks — person given as a pledge or security
• Latvian: ķīlniece — person given as a pledge or security
• Lithuanian: įkaitas — person given as a pledge or security
• Macedonian: заложник (založnik) — person given as a pledge or security
• Macedonian: заложничка (založnička) — person given as a pledge or security
• Macedonian: заложница (založnica) — person given as a pledge or security
• Malay: tebusan — person given as a pledge or security
• Malay: orang tebusan — person given as a pledge or security
• Manchu: ᡩᠠᠮᡨᡠᠨ (damtun) — person given as a pledge or security
• Manx: raane — person given as a pledge or security
• Māori: mauhere paremata — person given as a pledge or security
• Mongolian: барьцаа (barʹcaa) — person given as a pledge or security
• Norwegian Bokmål: gissel — person given as a pledge or security
• Norwegian Nynorsk: gissel — person given as a pledge or security
• Occitan: ostatge — person given as a pledge or security
• Old East Slavic: таль (talĭ) — person given as a pledge or security
• Old English: ġīsl — person given as a pledge or security
• Pashto: يرغمل (yarǧamal) — person given as a pledge or security
• Persian: گِروگان (gerogân) — person given as a pledge or security
• Persian: یَرْغَمال (yarġamâl) — person given as a pledge or security
• Persian: رَهین (rahin) — person given as a pledge or security
• Polish: zakładnik — person given as a pledge or security
• Polish: zakładniczka — person given as a pledge or security
• Old Polish: obsiadły — person given as a pledge or security
• Old Polish: zastawca — person given as a pledge or security
• Portuguese: refém — person given as a pledge or security
• Romanian: ostatic — person given as a pledge or security
• Romanian: ostatică — person given as a pledge or security
• Russian: зало́жник (zalóžnik) — person given as a pledge or security
• Russian: зало́жница (zalóžnica) — person given as a pledge or security
• Serbo-Croatian: та́лац — person given as a pledge or security
• Serbo-Croatian: таокиња — person given as a pledge or security
• Serbo-Croatian: tálac — person given as a pledge or security
• Serbo-Croatian: taokinja — person given as a pledge or security
• Slovak: rukojemník — person given as a pledge or security
• Slovak: rukojemníčka — person given as a pledge or security
• Slovene: talec — person given as a pledge or security
• Slovene: talka — person given as a pledge or security
• Spanish: rehén — person given as a pledge or security
• Swahili: mateka — person given as a pledge or security
• Swahili: ghanima — person given as a pledge or security
• Swedish: gisslan — person given as a pledge or security
• Tajik: гаравгон (garavgon) — person given as a pledge or security
• Tamil: பிணையாளி (piṇaiyāḷi) — person given as a pledge or security
• Tamil: பிணைக்கைதி (piṇaikkaiti) — person given as a pledge or security
• Tamil: கிரி (kiri) — person given as a pledge or security
• Tatar: тотык (totıq) — person given as a pledge or security
• Telugu: బందీ (bandī) — person given as a pledge or security
• Thai: ตัวประกัน (dtuua-bprà-gan) — person given as a pledge or security
• Turkish: rehine — person given as a pledge or security
• Turkish: tutak — person given as a pledge or security
• Turkmen: girew — person given as a pledge or security
• Ukrainian: зару́чник (zarúčnyk) — person given as a pledge or security
• Ukrainian: зару́чниця (zarúčnycja) — person given as a pledge or security
• Urdu: یَرْغَمال (yarġamāl) — person given as a pledge or security
• Urdu: رَہِین (rahīn) — person given as a pledge or security
• Uyghur: تۇتقۇن (tutqun) — person given as a pledge or security
• Uzbek: garov — person given as a pledge or security
• Vietnamese: con tin — person given as a pledge or security
• Welsh: gwystl — person given as a pledge or security
• Yiddish: אָרעווניק (orevnik) — person given as a pledge or security