Launch comes from Old French lanchier meaning 'to hurl a lance'. The throwing of a spear became the metaphor for setting anything in motion — ships, rockets, products.
To set a vessel in motion by pushing it into the water; to set in motion or start an enterprise or activity.
From Anglo-Norman launcher, Old French lanchier meaning 'to fling, to hurl, to throw a lance', from Late Latin lanceāre meaning 'to wield a lance', from Latin lancea meaning 'lance, spear'. The original meaning was throwing a weapon — specifically hurling a lance. The nautical sense of launching a ship developed by analogy: pushing a vessel into water was like hurling it forward. The modern sense of launching a product or project extends
Launch and lance are the same word. Old French lanchier meant 'to hurl a lance', and the act of throwing became the word for any forceful sending-forth. Freelance also belongs: a free lance was a medieval mercenary — a knight whose lance was not pledged to any lord, available for hire. Every product launch and every freelancer trace back to the same thrown spear