otage French · revision 15685

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 1100, Chanson de Roland (ostage)|origins=la hospes}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ɔ.taʒ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''otage''' ''m or f'' by sense (plural otages)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French ''ostage'', ''hostage''^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary); ''otage'' from the 16th century, written without a circumflex.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|fro|oste|-age]], from the old form of [[hôte]] “host, guest” with the suffix [[-age]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|4, 491b) and so goes back to [[la|hospes|t=host, guest]].^(Grand Robert 2005) Hostages were usually lodged in the house of the lord to whom they were sent, so the word, which meant “lodging, dwelling”, came to name the person, especially in phrases like “prendre” or “laisser en ostage” “to take into or leave in one's house”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005) Littré derived it instead from a Medieval Latin “obsidaticum”, from [[la|obses|t=hostage]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ [[it|ostaggio]] was borrowed from Gallo-Romance.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) [[en|hostage]] comes from Old French.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ''Chanson de Roland'' (about 1100) already uses ''ostage'' for a person given or received as a pledge that a promise or treaty will be kept;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) the sense “lodging” is recorded in the ''Roman d'Énéas'' (about 1160), though it must be older.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the Revolutionary period (1793) the word took the modern sense of a person seized and held as a means of pressure to obtain what one demands.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Rey notes that its weight has varied greatly, from individual hostages to the groups shot in reprisal in 1942–1945;^(DHLF 1992) ''prise d'otages'' is hostage-taking.^(Petit Robert 2007) It is also used figuratively, ''être l'otage de'' “to be the hostage of”.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1100 – ''Ostage'' “hostage” (''Roland'').^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+ * c. 1160 – ''Ostage'' “lodging”.^(TLFi)

+ * 16th century – The spelling ''otage''.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1793 – A person held to extort demands.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|hostage]], a person seized and held to force demands: ''prise d'otages''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A person given as a pledge for a promise or treaty.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+ # ''(figurative)'' Someone used as a means of pressure: ''être l'otage de''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[hôte]]

+ * [[en|hostage]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}