Freelance encompasses a free professional practice without dependence. A freelancer is an independent or self-employed worker, that is, one who does not depend on a company or entity to generate his or her own earnings.
It is also known as freelance to those people who offer their services freely, that is to say, with their own conditions and payment methods.
SYNONYMS FOR Freelance
- Independent worker
- Freelancer
ORIGIN OF Freelance
The translation of the word freelancer is “free lancer” and refers to the independent soldiers with great skill in the use of the spear (known as mercenaries) who in the Middle Ages offered their services to the various armies at war. They carried their own weapons, i.e. their spears.
The first known appearance of this word was in the year 1809 in the book ‘The Life and Times of Hugh Miller’ by the writer Thomas N. Brown and here he justly referred to mercenaries. Although many think that it was actually in 1819, used by the Scottish writer and poet Sir Walter Scott, in his famous novel “Ivanhoe”.
It should be noted that in this opportunity the author used this word in the phrase that translates: “A man of action will always find a job”. Already by 1864 this word began to be used to refer to freelance workers and in 1882 it began to be used to refer to independent professionals who did journalistic work.
CURIOSITIES OF Freelance
In 1903, the Oxford English Dictionary used the term to define any person who performs his or her work independently or freelance. Nowadays, this word is also used to denote those who work remotely for companies or individuals, which is also known as teleworking.