Maybe some of you are who reading this post are freelancers, like me. But have you ever thought about where this term originated? It actually began life as two words – free lance, then was hyphenated as free-lance and today is spelt as one word.
Well, it seems to have come into usage in the 19th century and was used by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, in his book Ivanhoe, to describe what we would call today a mercenary, i.e. a soldier with his own equipment, that is, his lance, who would accept payment for the use of his weapon and his fighting abilities. Does this sound like an analogy for a modern day freelancer? Obviously, we do not go around killing people with lances ….but for example, freelance writers have our own equipment such as writing skills and a computer with Internet access for a start, and we sell our services to who we wish, rather than being a salaried member of an organization. And in keeping with the military tone, we often have our own, less bloody, battles to fight.
In addition, freelancers are often perceived as being happier as not only do they work independently from a boss, they are generally following their passion in life be it writing, painting, computer technology, you name it…………there’s bound to be a freelancer who offers this service.
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