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.
Photo by Little Visuals on Pexels.com Words are like flames in a fire – they live, twist and turn, die out or revive.
Yes, English is most definitely alive and
kicking. It might sound strange to you that a language can be considered to be
a living thing, but the English language is constantly evolving and has done so
ever since the Anglo Saxon language developed into what we now call Middle
English, which in turn became Early Modern English, leading the way to how we
speak English today.
How changes happen
Of course, these changes do not happen overnight. They are shaped by society’s attitude to events, by circumstance, by the new inventions of the age – just think how many new words have been invented due to technological advances in the twentieth century, let alone the swirl of technology that surrounds us now. Here are just six examples of common words or expressions that would bewilder our forefathers – Wi-Fi, broadband (technology), greenhouse gas, carbon footprint (circumstance), or transgender, manspreading (social change).
And of course, any language evolves due to the same type of events in its society and this is why there are many different types of English we can find throughout the world. Why do Americans say “sidewalk” when the British say “pavement”? Well, because before globalization, the English language developed one way in the U.S. and another in the U.K. Nowadays with the Internet, Hollywood films and globalisation, a great many British people are familiar with American terms, and even though they may never use the word themselves, they clearly recognise it and know its meaning. Nevertheless, in the world of the Mayflower and the pilgrims, the English language was developing due to social change and circumstances in Britain, which were not the same as in the United States, so therefore language evolution was different in North America.
Other Languages
And what is more, exactly the same process happened with Spanish in the Latin American countries after the first Spanish settlers arrived . Often, in the same way as American English, the emigrants retained the same word from the original language – for example, “carro” in Mexican Spanish, which originally meant “cart”, is now used to signify a car. In Spain however, a new word for car was invented, “coche”. Words like “trash” or “stove” – still used widely in North America – evolved into “rubbish” and “cooker” in Britain. Some people claim that American English or British English is better than the other – It seems to me that they are really just expressing a preference for the vocabulary used in their territory.
So what do
you think? Do you believe one strain of English is better than another?
My blog
So, welcome to my all-inclusive, non-judgmental blog. If you enjoy reading about the English language for whatever reason, join me. I’ll be posting advice for exam students for the First, Advanced and IELTS exams along with musings on the idiosyncrasies of the English language for anyone who is interested. I look forward to blogging with you again soon.
english-stuff.com 
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