Comments on: How Do You Fare? http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-do-you-fare/ Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:41:25 +0000 hourly 1 By: Tony Hearn http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-do-you-fare/comment-page-1/#comment-221600 Tony Hearn Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:21:56 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=4221#comment-221600 Maeve writes: 'French faire derives from Latin facere, “to make.” English fare goes back to Latin portare, to carry, bring. By the time it got to English it meant “to travel, to go on a journey.” ' So close, but so far! Yes, French 'faire' derives directly from Latin 'facere', but English 'fare' does not *derive* from Latin 'portare'. Rather they share a common ancestry in the much older Indo-European mother-tongue about 6,000 years ago. 'Fare prompts another thought. In some British English dialects ( I'm familiar with that of East Anglia) 'fare' is used in a weaker sense, as in: 'That fare to be going to rain'. Maeve writes: ‘French faire derives from Latin facere, “to make.” English fare goes back to Latin portare, to carry, bring. By the time it got to English it meant “to travel, to go on a journey.” ‘
So close, but so far! Yes, French ‘faire’ derives directly from Latin ‘facere’, but English ‘fare’ does not *derive* from Latin ‘portare’. Rather they share a common ancestry in the much older Indo-European mother-tongue about 6,000 years ago.

‘Fare prompts another thought. In some British English dialects ( I’m familiar with that of East Anglia) ‘fare’ is used in a weaker sense, as in: ‘That fare to be going to rain’.

]]> By: Maeve http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-do-you-fare/comment-page-1/#comment-219628 Maeve Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:01:30 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=4221#comment-219628 French faire derives from Latin facere, "to make." English fare goes back to Latin portare, to carry, bring. By the time it got to English it meant "to travel, to go on a journey." French faire derives from Latin facere, “to make.” English fare goes back to Latin portare, to carry, bring. By the time it got to English it meant “to travel, to go on a journey.”

]]> By: Jon http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-do-you-fare/comment-page-1/#comment-219555 Jon Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:02:12 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/?p=4221#comment-219555 You live and learn; I'd've assumed that it shared some ancestry with the French "faire", (to do or to make). Then again, maybe <em>faran</em> and the origins of <em>faire</em> <strong>do</strong> converge further somewhere back in time (presumably before all words join back together into some kind of primal grunt-and-point based language... :-). You live and learn; I’d've assumed that it shared some ancestry with the French “faire”, (to do or to make).

Then again, maybe faran and the origins of faire do converge further somewhere back in time (presumably before all words join back together into some kind of primal grunt-and-point based language… :-) .

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