means Government or institutional support — money, food, healthcare — given to people in need; more broadly, the general well-being and prosperity of a person or group.

from A medieval Englishing of two plain old words smashed together: 'wel' (well, as in faring well) and 'fare' (to travel, get on, manage) — the same 'fare' that survives in 'farewell' (literally 'travel well') and in a 'fare' you pay to journey. So 'welfare' first just meant the state of doing well, faring nicely through life. Only in the 20th century did it harden into the bureaucratic sense of state-provided aid.