Mittelaltermarkt
Renaissance fairs have several variant names, many of which use old-fashioned spellings such as "faire" or "fayre". These spellings originate from the Middle English "feire" (variant spellings include "feyre", "faire", and "fayre"), which comes from the Anglo-French word "feire". They can also be referred to as "Elizabethan", "Medieval", or "Tudor" fairs or festivals. "Ren Fair" and "Ren Fest" are popular colloquialisms. A German "Mittelaltermarkt" (literally "medieval market") is very similar to a Renaissance fair. Many Catalan towns hold "Mercats Medievals" (literally "medieval markets") as part of their annual festivities.