welfare

SayWEL-fairUS/ˈwɛlˌfɛɚ/UK/ˈwɛlˌfɛə/

3 meanings of welfare

1
noununcountable
The health, safety, happiness, prosperity, and general well-being of a person or group.
The committee's main concern was the welfare of the local community.
Her parents always put her welfare above their own comfort.
Similarwell-being, good, interests, health
Note
The sense the word's own parts spell out: Middle English welefare, probably from the Old English phrase wel faran, "to fare well, get along successfully, prosper." It is simply well plus fare, with close cousins in Middle Dutch and Middle High German. It is usually uncountable and sits naturally in phrases like the common welfare, which W. B. Maxwell uses in The Mirror and the Lamp (1918) for a good a whole community shares.
2
nouncolloquialUSuncountable
Government financial assistance provided to individuals or families with low income or insufficient resources.
The state cut welfare to thousands of families during the budget crisis.
He grew up on welfare in a small Midwestern town.
Similarbenefits, assistance, aid, relief
Note
This is a clipping, and an informal American one: welfare spending, welfare payments and welfare assistance cut back to their first word. In careful writing, the full phrase is safer, as is a neutral term such as public assistance or income support. Welfare assistance is the form British usage keeps. Because it comes from those compounds, it names the money or the program, not well-being in general.

Less common meaning

3
verb
To provide with welfare or aid.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English welefare, probably from the Old English phrase wel faran ("to fare well, get along successfully, prosper"), and equivalent to well + fare. It is cognate with Middle Dutch welvare, Middle Low German wolvare, and Old Norse velferð (source of Swedish välfärd). The sense of social concern for people's well-being is first recorded in 1904, and the sense of an organized effort to support members of a group from 1918.