The term "freelance" is now used to refer to a worker who does work for pay but without any contractual obligation to their employer once each job is finished. If one looks at the word "freelance", not knowing its meaning, it might conjure up an image of a knight or mercenary with no allegiance, free to serve whomever pays the most. And one would be correct, at least back in the early 1800's in England. The earliest recorded use of the term was in Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe". A lord in this novel used the expression "free lances" to describe a paid army. Freelance first came into usage in the English language to describe medieval mercenaries who would fight for the highest bidder.