August 12: Freelance

Oddly enough, today's blog entry comes courtesy of the bank at which my wife and I have accounts. While standing in line to make a cash withdrawal for an odd dollar amount, thus eliminating any opportunity to use the ATM machine which only distributes money in $20 increments, I was watching the TV behind the Teller line. They displayed some sort of fact/tidbit segment which shared that the term "freelance" was coined by Sir Walter Scott in his 1819 novel "Ivanhoe". The term he used was "Free Lances" in reference to "medieval Italian and French knights, free men who would sell their skills with the lance to any master, whether his cause was good or bad." Originally the word “freelance” consisted of two separate words, however, in the 19th century it was accepted only as a noun, and in the 20th century it was officially recognized as a verb. And, there you have it! It's amazing the things you can learn at the bank these days.