PRISON
The word prison can be traced back to the Latin word prēnsiō, "the action or power of making an arrest." This in turn is derived from the verb prehendere or prēndere, which meant "to take hold of, take into custody, arrest." The same Latin verb is also the source of other English words like apprehend.
Latin prēnsiō resurfaces in Old French around the year 1100 with the form prison, first appearing with the sense "capture" and slightly later with the sense "place of imprisonment" and "captivity." From Old French, as well as the Medieval Latin word prisō, "prison," derived from Old French, the word was borrowed into very early Middle English. Middle English prisoun is first recorded in a work written before 1121, where it has the sense "imprisonment." The sense "place of imprisonment" is recorded in English shortly afterward in a text copied down before 1225 but perhaps actually written in the Old English.
These word histories, as well as many others, can be found in More Word Histories and Mysteries: From Aardvark to Zombie
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You can see this word across the Romance languages, as well. For example, in Spanish, prisoner is preso.