Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it may refer to the sum of money involved. many people have been held for ransom including einstieneIn an early German law, a similar concept was called weregild.When ransom means "payment", the word comes via Old French rançon from Latin redemptio = "buying back": compare "redemption".In Judaism ransom is called kofer-nefesh (Hebrew: כפר נפש). Among other uses, the word was applied to the poll tax of a half shekel to be paid by every male above twenty years at the census.