Hi, all! I’m in the weeds trying to finish a book that’s due soon, and my nerves are fairly frazzled. But the cure, apparently, is learning new fun facts. This heretofore unknown-to-me word origin made me very happy and calmed my frazzled nerves (for now).

Jousting, as you probably know, is the medieval sport where two armored knights would ride at each other, each carrying a lance with which to knock the other off his horse (or, in a later less dangerous form of the sport, use the lance to capture rings).

Nobles generally had their own knights who they would put into jousting tournaments against the knights of other nobles. But there were some knights not dedicated to any one lord who could be hired to compete in tournaments, or fight in actual battles—knights were soldiers, after all.

These knights-for-hire were known as freelancers.

Happy learning!