- For the 2005 film, see Hostage (film).
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor, often a criminal abductor in order to compel another party such as a relative, employer or government to act, or refrain from acting, in a particular way, often under threat of serious physical harm to the hostages after expiration of an ultimatum.
Description
Hostage taking is often politically motivated or intended to raise a ransom or to enforce an exchange against other hostages or even condemned convicts. However in some countries hostage taking for profit has become an "industry", ransom often being the only demand.
- As the probable etymology from the Latin hostis ('guest') testifies, it has a history of political and military use dating back thousands of years, where political authorities or generals would legally agree to hand over one or usually several hostages in the custody of the other side, as guarantee of good faith in the observance of obligations. These obligations would be in the form of signing of a peace treaty, in the hands of the victor, or even exchange hostages as mutual assurance in cases such as an armistice. Major powers, such as Ancient Rome and the British who had colonial vassals, would especially receive many such political hostages, often offspring of the elite, even princes or princesses who were generally treated according to their rank and put to a subtle long-term use: they could be given an elitist education or possibly even a religious conversion), that would influence them culturally and open the way for an amical political line if they ascended to power after release.
- Taking hostages is today considered a crime or a terrorist act; the use of the word in this sense of abductee became current only in the 1970s. The criminal activity is known as kidnapping. An acute situation where hostages are kept in a building or a vehicle that has been taken over by armed terrorists or common criminals is often called a hostage crisis.
- The word "hostage" is sometimes used metaphorically, for example "The failure of the plans showed that yet again the whole matter was hostage to one traffic delay caused by unannounced roadworks stopping a man from catching a plane.".
In old Germanic peoples the word for "hostage" (gīsl and similar) sometimes occurred as part of a man's name: Ēadgils, Cynegils, Gīslheard, Gīslbeorht, etc. See also Homeric Question.
Famous hostages include
Historical
Modern times
See also
Sources
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostage under GFDL
