Once an everyday term, the word fare, meaning food provided by a host, now seems relegated to a few old-fashioned phrases such as bill of fare and daily fare; anyone who now uses the word on its own—as in “My dear fellow, what fare do you offer today?”—instantly declares himself to be someone we will cross the street to avoid. In other contexts, the word fare has fared better: when our children leave for university we pay the airfare, when we say goodbye to them at the airport we sob a tearful farewell, and when they are unable to find a job after receiving a B.A. in Philosophy they go on welfare. All these fares derive from the same source, namely the Old English word faran, meaning to pass through or to travel, which is distantly related to the Latin word portare, meaning to carry. How a word that originally meant to travel came to mean food is a roundabout process that began in the eleventh century. First, fare shifted from meaning to travel to meaning to travel in a lavish manner. It then shifted again as it came to mean to entertain guests in a lavish manner, especially with food and drink. And finally, fare shifted once more as it came to denote the actual food provided as part of a host’s entertainment.