Prisoner

How to spell prisoner

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce prisoner

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does prisoner mean?

1. nounA person held in confinement, captivity, or custody, especially in a prison.

Prisoner in a sentence

• The prisoner was released after serving eight years.

• Guards escorted each prisoner back to the cell block.

Where does prisoner come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the early 1300s from the Old French prisonier, which was built on prison, a place of captivity. That noun traces back to the Latin prensionem, a worn-down form of prehensionem, meaning literally 'a seizing' or 'a taking hold', from the verb prehendere 'to grasp or capture'. The sense slid naturally from the act of seizing a person to the place where the seized were kept, and finally to the captive individual described by prisonier. The same prehendere root sits behind a surprising family of English words, including 'apprehend', 'comprehend', and even 'prey'. For the speller, the helpful link is that prisoner simply pairs the familiar noun 'prison' with the agent ending '-er', so the inner spelling never strays from prison itself.

How the word is built

• prison (a place of confinement, from Latin prehensio 'a seizing')
• -er (agent noun suffix, 'one who')