Freelance

How to spell freelance

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce freelance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does freelance mean?

1. verbTo work independently for several clients rather than as an employee of one organisation.
2. adjectiveWorking for, or done by, an independent person who is hired for particular jobs rather than employed permanently.

Freelance in a sentence

• verb

  She decided to freelance after leaving the design agency.

• adjective

  The magazine relies on a network of freelance photographers.

• verb

  Many editors freelance for a range of magazines instead of taking a salaried post.

• adjective

  As a freelance translator she invoices each client separately.

Where does freelance come from?

Language of origin: French

This word began as the vivid image of a 'free lance', a medieval mercenary knight whose lance, and therefore whose loyalty, was not pledged to any single lord but offered to whoever would pay. The phrase was popularised by the Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott in his 1820 novel Ivanhoe, where soldiers describe themselves as free lances available for hire. Within a few decades the two words had fused into one and the meaning had broadened beyond warfare to anyone who sells their services independently rather than working for a single fixed employer. By the later nineteenth century it was being applied to writers and journalists, the sense most familiar today. The spelling trap is the second half: 'lance' looks odd once the warlike image is forgotten, but remembering the hired knight and his lance keeps the -ance ending firmly in place.

How the word is built

• free (independent, not bound)
• lance (a mounted soldier's weapon, standing for the soldier himself)