I've been held hostage!
or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war."
A person who seizes one or more hostages is known as a hostage-taker; if the hostages are present voluntarily, then the receiver is known as a host.
Etymology.
The English word "hostage" derives from French "ostage", modern "otage", from Late Latin "obsidaticum" (Medieval Latin "ostaticum, ostagium"), the state of being an "obses" (plural "obsides"), "hostage
am a Canadian citizen and I've been held hostage by gunmen in Somalia for nearly 10 months. I'm in a desperate situation. I'm being kept in a dark, windowless, room in chains without any clean drinking water and little or no food. I've been very sick for months without any medicine... I love my country and want to live to see it again. Without food or medicine, I will die here."
On November 25, 2009, after 460 days as a hostage, Lindhout