freelance

What it means

1. Someone who sells their services to clients without a long-term employment contract.

   The objector, one Millworthy, a free-lance of journalism, was not to be so easily silenced.

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Where Our Commissioners Have a Remarkable Experience”, in The Land of Mist, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published 1926, →OCLC, page 78

   1 more example

   The person you are revising (the revisee) is a colleague at your own rank, or another freelance.

   2014, Brian Mossop, Revising and Editing for Translators, page 192

2. historicalA medieval mercenary.

   I—I offered Richard the service of my Free Lances, and he refused them—I will lead them to Hull, seize on shipping, and embark for Flanders; […] Trust me, Estoteville alone has strength enough to drive all thy Free Lances into the Humber.

   1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter IV, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 98–100

   Synonyms: adventurer, bravo, condottiere, filibuster, freebooter, free companion, hired gun, hireling

In a sentence

The objector, one Millworthy, a free-lance of journalism, was not to be so easily silenced.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Where Our Commissioners Have a Remarkable Experience”, in The Land of Mist, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published 1926, →OCLC, page 78

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*preyH-
2. Proto-Indo-European*priHós
3. Proto-Germanic*frijwaz
4. Proto-West Germanic*friu
5. Old Englishfrēo
6. Middle Englishfre
7. Englishfree
8. Latinlancea
9. Old Frenchlance
10. Middle Englishlaunce
11. Englishlance
12. Englishfreelance

From free + lance. Coined by Walter Scott (1771–1832) in Ivanhoe (1819; see quotation) to describe a medieval mercenary warrior or "free-lance" (indicating that the lance is not sworn to any lord's services). It changed to a figurative noun around the 1860s and was recognized as a verb in 1903 by authorities such as the Oxford English Dictionary. In modern times the term has morphed into an adjective, a verb, and an adverb, as well as the derivative noun freelancer.