Freelancing is a type of employment or profession where an individual works for as long as he could and gets paid by the hour or on a per project basis. The freelance worker has no commitment to any employer and, thus, able to work in any number of projects usually short-term in nature.

A person who works on freelance jobs is called a freelancer or freelance worker.

History of the term ‘Freelance’

In ‘Ivanhoe’, the novelist Sir Walter Scott used the phrase ‘free-lance’ as description to a ‘medieval mercenary warrior.’

Ernest William Hornung, poet and author, used the word ‘freelance’ to disparage in ‘The Gift of the Emperor.’

From ‘free-lance’ to ‘freelance’, the term is now used in different forms:

• as a noun – a freelance
• an adjective – a freelance worker
• a verb – a stay-at-home mom who freelances
• an adverb – he worked freelance