What is the meaning of "Fare thee well"?

By itself, "fare thee well" a simple phrase of parting, a variant of "farewell" or "farewell [to] thee", and that's what it means in the song lyric. As a phrase "to a fare-thee-well" it means "to an extreme degree".

There should be no a real problem with this phrase.

Fare meant in earlier times "to make one's way", "to journey".

Thee is the second person object pronoun (now usually "you").

Well might be thought of as adverbially "good".

Fare thee well means to "live well", "have a good life". Some still used the phrase when I was young. It was used as a valediction when people parted for an extended period. It has been misunderstood because of the idiomatic phrase "to a fare thee well", which came to mean "done perfectly". I think it is clear that meaning came from the idea something was done to a point there was nothing left but to say "goodbye". (Sam beat Fred "to a fare thee well", (perfectly beat him), meaning there was nothing left to do but say goodbye.)

In Dutch there is a similar expression which is 'vaarwel' or 'vaar wel'.

The wording and meaning are so similar that they probably have the same origin. Therefore it may help to compare them.

In Dutch it is a saying of goodby - forever. It means that we will not meet again and I wish you a good journey/life.

'wel' means 'well' as in lucky or in a good way. The literal meaning of 'vaar' (sounds like 'fare') is 'sail' (as in travel by ship). A secondary meaning is the way your life or business is going. In this saying it means 'I wish you luck for the rest of your life'.

This line is very common in British folk songs. The traditional music resource Mainly Norfolk has several versions of "The Turtle Dove" containing it on this page alone. Not all the versions contain 'fare thee well' but most of them do.

Bob Dylan wrote a song called Farewell (possibly influenced by The Turtle Dove) which contains it; and Robert Burns used it in A Red Red Rose. In all cases it means "goodbye" but carries connotations of goodwill and affection: it would be unlikely that anyone would use it when parting on bad terms.

According to The Online Etymological Dictionary "to a fare thee well" meaning to perfection only dates from the late 19th century and only in the US. As a British person I'd never heard it used that way at all.

How you ‘fare’ means ‘how well things show up for you’ or ‘how well you go on’ or ‘get on’ (in life).

For example:

• John fared well in the first cricket innings, gaining 42 runs.
• Sandra fared well in the raffle, winning a basket of fruit.
• ‘How did you fare in Italy?’ ‘Very well thanks - I had a great time, found cheap places to stay...’

So how you ‘fare’ is ‘how things go for you’.

• Fare = how things go for you
• Thee = ‘you’
• Well = in a positive manner

Fare thee well means ‘may things go well for you’!

‘Fare thee well’ appears in a lot of songs - often about sending people on a journey safely and happily, saying ‘goodbye and safe journey’ - although it is really about ‘the journey of life’ not exclusively, travelling.

Link: see ‘to progress, or be in a certain condition’.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fare

As a child,I've heard "A Fair Thee Well" used as a Noun: A derogatory term, Meaning a Person who thought more of himself than was proper or live in a manner that was above his means to impress others

fare - isn't an archaic verb really, you may well ask a man about his son for instance having taken an exam, 'do you know how he fared?' For that matter thee and thou is still common parlance in various locations in England, and I suspect Wales and Scotland too ..... just because the middle-classes (and the lecturing classes) have forgotten how to express their friendship for someone by using it, doesn't mean it is 'archaic', it means, we keep it secret from them. Heard regularly in Barnsley, Sheffield and other parts of Yorkshire and, in my view making a come back too.