Matthew Billingham wrote:
The term "freelance" originated in knights for hire. I.e. knights with no lord who would offer their lances to whoever would pay. Essentially a medieval mercenary. Of course mercenaries have been around for thousands of years.
Given the fact that many "freelance developers" are obviously willing to commit horrible crimes to the system if the customer requests that, I don't think that the term "freelance" is entirely wrong...