desicreative.com

A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and isn't committed to an employer for too long. The term was first used by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) in Ivanhoe to describe a "medieval mercenary warrior" or "free-lance". It changed to a figurative noun around the 1860s and was recognized as a verb in 1903 by authorities in etymology such as the Oxford English Dictionary. Only in modern times has the term morphed from a noun (a freelance) into an adjective (a freelance journalist), a verb (a journalist who freelances) and an adverb (she worked freelance), and then the noun "freelancer."

The author and poet Ernest William Hornung (1866–1921) used the term in "The Gift of the Emperor" to describe something of poor quality: "I warmed to my woes. It was no easy matter to keep your end up as a raw freelance of letters; for my part, I was afraid I wrote neither well enough nor ill enough for success."

wow! that's reallly interesting! and hahahaha about the reference to poor quality!!

true but how can we get some freelance work ourselves?

Recently, i did some work for a client as freelancer. After completion, send him bill...called him up after few days for payment. "Payment? I thought you're 'freelancing'", he said.

I dont know how far this is true but someone I know walked away with the office scanner of a non paying client...

what can one do? its so frustrating. I sat at someones office for a week, each morning before work and still didn't get my money. what can someone do with such clients?