captive

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English captif,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French captif,^[3][4][5] and directly from Latin captīvus (“caught, taken prisoner; a prisoner”),^[6][7][8][4] from captus (“taken”), the past participle of capiō (“to take, hold, seize”),^[7][6][3] with the suffix -īvus (-ive).^[9][10] The Middle English Dictionary compares both the Latin word and chaitif,^[2] the source of caitiff, which Klein calls a doublet of this word.^[5][4] In Anglo-Norman the noun is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century.^[11] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”),^[7][3] and is cognate with Ancient Greek κάπτειν (káptein, “to gulp down”), Albanian kap (“I grasp, seize”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍆𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hafjan, “to raise, lift”) and Old English hebban, the source of heave.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, taken prisoner in war or by force, kept in confinement or bondage: c. 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde;^[4] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century,^[7] but Barnhart finds it only about 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[6] As a noun, a person captured and held, it appears in the alliterative Morte Arthure, before 1400.^[4][6][2]

Semantic evolution

The phrases to lead captive, to take captive and to hold captive are recorded from Coverdale's Bible of 1535; the OED suggests that captive was originally the noun in them.^[4] From 1597, in Shakespeare's Richard III, the adjective was used figuratively of someone captivated or enslaved in will and feeling,^[4] and the noun from 1732 of a person captivated by beauty or another's influence.^[4] In the 19th century the word was extended to animals caught and kept confined, and to things kept from escaping, such as a captive balloon (1855).^[4] A captive audience, one that cannot escape a speech or entertainment, is recorded in the OED from 1902, in Howells, originally in the United States,^[4] though Etymonline finds the phrase by 1816.^[7] In American mining a captive mine, from 1924, is one that supplies only firms under the same ownership.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "made prisoner in war; kept in bondage or confinement".^[12] Before the borrowing, Old English used hæftling, from hæft (“taken, seized”), from the same root.^[7] A verb captive, to take captive or to captivate, borrowed from French captiver, is recorded from about 1430 in Lydgate and was very common in the 16th to 18th centuries, but is now archaic.^[4][8][9]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – adjective, taken prisoner, kept in confinement.^[4]
• before 1400 – noun, a person captured and held.^[4][6]
• c. 1430 – verb, to take captive (now archaic).^[4][9]
• 1528 – verb, to captivate the mind or feelings.^[4]
• 1535 – to lead captive, to take captive.^[4]
• 1590 – of or belonging to a captive.^[4]
• 1597 – figurative, captivated, enslaved in feeling.^[4]
• 1732 – noun, one captivated by beauty or influence.^[4]
• 1855 – of animals and things kept confined, as a captive balloon.^[4]
• 1902 – captive audience.^[4]
• 1924 – of a mine supplying only firms under the same ownership (US).^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who has been taken and is held prisoner, especially by an enemy in war: The rebels released two of their captives at the border.
2. An animal kept in confinement.
3. A person dominated by an emotion, a person or an influence: He became a captive of his own ambition.

Adjective

1. Taken and held as a prisoner, especially in war.
2. Kept within bounds; confined: captive animals, captive breeding.
3. Unable by circumstances to avoid something, especially in captive audience, one that cannot leave a speech or advertisement.
4. Owned or controlled by a firm and serving only it, as a captive mine.
5. Captivated; enraptured.

Verb

1. (archaic) To take captive, or to captivate.

Word family

• captivate

Related words

• caitiff
• captivity
• capture
• captor
• capable
• heave

Usage notes

The verb was originally stressed on the second syllable, captive, as it still is in Milton, but Shakespeare's stress on the first syllable, frequent in the 17th century, is the only one that survives.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.