fare

[ fair ]
See synonyms for: farefaredfaring on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. the price of conveyance or passage in a bus, train, airplane, or other vehicle.

  2. a person or persons who pay to be conveyed in a vehicle; paying passenger.

  1. a person who hires a public vehicle and its driver.

  2. food; diet: hearty fare.

  3. something offered to the public, for entertainment, enjoyment, consumption, etc.: literary fare.

  4. Archaic. state of things.

verb (used without object),fared, far·ing.
  1. to experience good or bad fortune, treatment, etc.; get on: He fared well in his profession.

  2. to go; turn out; happen (used impersonally): It fared ill with him.

  1. to go; travel.

  2. to eat and drink: They fared sumptuously.

Origin of fare

1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English faren, Old English faran; cognate with German fahren, Old Norse fara, Gothic faran; akin to emporium, port5, pram2

synonym study For fare

4. See food.

word story For fare

The English noun fare derives from the verb. The Middle English verb faren (also fearen, varen, vearen, fair, faire, feren ) “to travel, go, move (in space or time)” developed from Old English faran. The Old English verb has many relatives in Germanic: Old Frisian fara, Old Saxon faran, Old High German faran, German fahren, Old Norse fara, and Gothic faran.
All these verbs come from far-, a Germanic variant of the Proto-Indo-European root per-, por- “to cross, pass, pass over, bring through, convey.” The variant por- is the source of Latin portāre “to carry, transport,” as well as the nouns porta “gate, door, opening,” portus “a harbor, a port,” and porticus “covered walk, portico.”
In Greek, the variant por- forms the noun póros “passage, ford, narrowing,” as in the proper name Bosporus (Greek Bósporos ), literally, “Oxford.” The incorrect Latin spelling Bosphorus first appears in Marcus Terentius Varro, a Roman scholar and author who was a contemporary of Cicero, and it's too late to complain about it now.
Fare in the sense “price of conveyance” appeared in Middle English, related to the Old English senses “a journey” and “to travel, go.” The meanings “to eat and drink” and “food, or the provision of food” are also first recorded in Middle English.

Other words from fare

  • farer, noun

Words that may be confused with fare

Words Nearby fare

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use fare in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for fare

fare

/ (fɛə) /


noun
  1. the sum charged or paid for conveyance in a bus, train, aeroplane, etc

  2. a paying passenger, esp when carried by taxi

  1. a range of food and drink; diet

verb(intr)
  1. to get on (as specified); manage: he fared well

  2. (with it as a subject) to turn out or happen as specified: it fared badly with him

  1. archaic to eat: we fared sumptuously

  2. (often foll by forth) archaic to go or travel

Origin of fare

1
Old English faran; related to Old Norse fara to travel, Old High German faran to go, Greek poros ford

Derived forms of fare

  • farer, noun

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