I've looked up the entry in several slang dictionaries and there seem to be at least two meanings.
- When applied to children, that of silly and poorly educated with a whiff of mischievousness.
- When applied to adults, that of foolish and/or ridiculous.
Below are my sources, cited in extenso.
Oxford Dictionary of Slang (1998)
’erbert n British
A foolish person, a cheeky, unwashed
child. For many years, in London working-class slang, Herbert or ’Erbert was
used to refer to any otherwise unnamed
man or boy. Gradually, probably by
being used in phrases such as ‘silly
’erbert’, it came to have the more pejorative sense. There probably never was
an eponymous Herbert; it was merely a common working-class name from the
Edwardian era.
The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2008)
herbert noun
1. a mischievous child or youth. Quite often heard as
‘little herbert’ UK, 1999.
2 a harmless youth; a ridiculous man. An
extension of the previous sense UK, 1960.
3 a man in a specified field of endeavour UK, 1956
John Ayto Oxford Dictionary of Slang (1998)
Herbert (1960) British;
applied to a
foolish or ridiculous man ; arbitrary use of the male forename
T. Barling: A dozen baby-brained herberts looking to face me off just to say they squared up to Kosher Kramer before the cobbles came up a bit smartish.
(1986)
Yeah, it's a common idiom.
It simply draws attention to a pair, or group, of things which are "surprising together".
It simply means: "that's a surprising combination!" - that's it.
So, I tell you I have a Ferrari and a Volvo. You say "that's quite a combo!" Again, you're simply pointing out "that's a surprising combination!"
(Just FTR in the example it's not clear if the writer is talking about "Shwan's family" ("they're quite a combo!") or "the family plus the song" ("that song and that family are quite a combo!").)
Note that it can be used in a negative sense, or, just as a positive exclamation.
For example, say you offered me to eat "sushi with curry". I might say "oh dear - that's quite a combo!" Note that in this example, it is a polite way of saying "that's stupid and horrible."
On the other hand, you offer me chocolate and martinis, I say "That's quite a combo!" with no negative meaning, I'm just saying "that's a surprising combination!" - I may go on to say "That's quite a combo, I love it, let's eat."
That's all there is to it.
Best Answer
"Fare thee well" is an expression of good luck used at a parting. So the meaning is similar to "good luck". It contains the archaic second-person pronoun "thee". It's not a common expression: it's a little more common to say "farewell", although that still sounds very formal.
The Oxford English Dictionary entry for the verb "fare" categorizes the grammar of this construction as an impersonal verb followed by a dative pronoun. A "dative" pronoun is one with the sense of "to X", so "Fare thee well" apparently would be more or less equivalent to "May it fare well to thee". That is explained as the meaning of the expression in Complete manual of parsing, by W. Davidson and J.C. Alcock (1875, p. 159).
The archaic verb "fare" has a somewhat similar meaning to the verb "go" so it could be seen as an old-fashioned way of saying "I hope things go well for you."