Hostage

Chamber's Twientieth Century Dictionary · 1908 · p. 50

hos′tāj, n. one remaining with the enemy as a pledge for the fulfilment of the conditions of a treaty.— Hostages to fortune , a man's wife, children, . [O. Fr. hostage (Fr. ôtage )—Low L. obsidaticus —L. obses , obsidis , a hostage.]