Welfare

How to spell welfare

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce welfare

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does welfare mean?

1. nounThe health, happiness, and general good condition of a person or group.
2. nounFinancial support provided by the government to people in need.

Welfare in a sentence

• The manager genuinely cared about the welfare of her staff.

• After losing his job he had to apply for welfare to cover the rent.

• Animal welfare standards on the farm were inspected every spring.

• The new policy cut the budget for welfare payments to low-income families.

Where does welfare come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Welfare began life in Middle English around the 1300s as the two-word phrase 'wel faren', literally meaning 'to fare well' or 'to get along in good condition'. The second element comes from the Old English verb faran, meaning 'to travel' or 'to make one's way', the same root that survives in 'fare' (a journey or its price) and in 'farewell', which once meant 'may you travel well'. Over time the phrase fused into a single noun describing a person's general state of doing well: their health, happiness, and prosperity. The narrower modern sense of organised assistance from the state grew up much later, becoming common in the twentieth century with the rise of the 'welfare state'. Because the word is simply 'well' plus 'fare', the spelling trap is remembering the single 'l' (it is not 'wellfare'), even though we say and write 'well' with two.

How the word is built

• wel- (well, in good condition)
• fare (from Old English faran: to journey, to get along)