Fringe (pronounced frinj)
(1) A decorative border of thread, cord, or the like,
usually hanging loosely from a raveled edge or separate strip; an edging
consisting of hanging threads, tassels etc.
(2) In architecture, engineering, gardening, interior
decorating et al, anything resembling or suggesting this (sometimes used loosely).
(3) An outer edge; margin; the periphery.
(4) In political science, something regarded as
peripheral, marginal, secondary, or extreme in relation to something else; Those
members of a political party, or any social group, holding unorthodox views
(famously as the “lunatic fringe”).
(5) In optical physics, one of the alternate light and
dark bands produced by the diffraction or interference of light.
(6) In tax law, as “fringe benefit”, a non-cash element
of earning treated as income for taxation purposes (sometimes at a concessional
rate).
(7) To furnish with or as if with a fringe; to serve as a
fringe for, or to be arranged around or along so as to suggest a fringe; to be
a fringe.
(8) In hairdressing, a style in which hair sits vertically
across the forehead (synonymous with “bangs”, the predominant US form although
the latter describes a wider range of cuts and, under the influence of social
media, is now widely used).
(9) In botany, the peristome or fringe-like appendage of
the capsules of most mosses.
(10) In structured performance art, a series of events
conducted in parallel with (though not formerly a part of) an established festival
(Edinburgh Fringe; Adelaide Fringe et al).
1325–1375: From the Middle English frenge (ornamental bordering; material for a fringe), from the Old
French frenge (thread, strand,
fringe, hem, border) (which endures in Modern French as frange), from the Vulgar Latin frimbia
(a metathetic variant of the Late Latin plural fimbria (fibers, threads, fringe)), from the Latin fimbriae (fringe) of uncertain
origin. It was related to the German Franse and Danish frynse and came to replace the native Middle English fnæd (fringe), byrd (fringe) & fasel (fringe)
from the Old English fæs (fringe)
& fnæs (fringe). As a verb which described “to decorate with a
fringe or fringes”, use emerged in the mid-fifteenth century. The meaning “a border, a boundary, an edge” dates
from the 1640s while the figurative sense of “an outer edge, the margin” didn’t
come into use until the 1890s although fringe had been an adjective since 1809.
The use of the technical term “fringe
benefits” was first recorded in 1952. Fringe
is a noun, verb & adjective, fringed & fringing are verbs and fringeless,
fringelike & fringy are adjectives; the noun plural is fringes.
For those seeking an example of the fecundity of the
human imagination, Urban Dictionary has listing of their contributor’s
suggesting of forms in which fringe is an element including mini-fringe, fringe
fries, Tetris fringe, stoner fringe, wannabe fringe, minge fringe, vagina fringe,
fringe of wisdom, fringe sex, clunge fringe, stu fringe, fringed purse, fringe flicker,
pube fringe, fringe binge, fanny fringe, block fringe, fringed unicorn, fringe wizzle,
chocolate fringe, box fringe, fringe of darkness, fringe sleeper, fucking
fringe & grunge fringe. Especially
in those with some anatomical reference, there may be some overlap in meaning
but it remains an impressive list.
In the science of genetics, “lunatic fringe” was too tempting
to resist. As in many fields in science, the privilege of allocating a name for
a gene is granted to whomever discovered it and those working on fruit flies and
other creatures concocted, inter alia: Tinman
(fruit flies with a mutated Tinman
gene do not develop a heart); Casanova
(Zebrafish with a mutation in the Casanova
gene develops two hearts); INDY (I’m
not dead yet (a reference to a line in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail) a mutation in the INDY gene prolongs the lifespan of fruit
flies; Cheap Date (fruit flies with a
mutation in the Cheap Date gene
become highly sensitive to alcohol); Dracula
(Zebrafish with a mutated Dracula
gene are hyper-sensitive to light and soon die; Sonic Hedgehog (Fruit fly
embryos with mutated Sonic hedgehog gene develop spikes that resembles a
hedgehog); Pinhead (a fruit fly gene which resembled humans colloquially called
"pinheads"); Groucho Marx (a
gene in metazoa that induces excess facial bristles); Ken & Barbie (Mutations in Ken
and Barbie result in fruit flies without external genitalia; Grim & Reaper (the genes Grim & Reaper regulate the death
process (apoptosis) in fruit flies). Even
the names of some of genes discovered in fruit fly (and other non-human) research
proved to be controversial because so many were shared with humans and accordingly
the Human Genome Organization’s (HUGO) gene naming committee was petitioned to
change them. As part of this linguistic
sanitization, three christened during the decoding of the human genome (Lunatic Fringe, Manic Fringe & Radical Fringe) were anonymized respectively
as LFNG, MFNG & RFNG.
Lunatic Fringe, Canterbury, England.
In parts of the English-speaking world, it’s not uncommon
to find a hairdressing salon called Lunatic Fringe but it’s less common in North
America where the preferred term for what in the UK, Australia etc was
traditionally called a fringe, is “bangs”.
Under the influence of social media and other cultural exports, the Americanism
has spread and bangs is now commonly heard everywhere and it’s proved
technically useful for professional hairdressers who often distinguish between
the classic fringe and a variety of cuts called bangs (which might be
considered partial fringes), typically a cut which involves some strands cut
short in front of the face or longer, usually thicker strands at the sides to “frame
the face”. The origin of the use of “bangs”
in this context is mysterious, some claiming it was a clipping of the
hairdresser’s phrase “bang off” which meant to cut the hair in front of the
face short, straight & even while others suggest a link with “bang tail”, a
dressage cut done to horsetails for equestrian events where the tail hairs
would be cut straight across.
Lindsay Lohan with fringe cut with the alluring “dangling in the eyes” look, known as early as 1875 as "the lunatic fringe" (left), in costume as Cleopatra in Liz & Dick (2012) with straight cut fringe (centre) and with curtain bangs which are layered but not quite a bottleneck (right).
There is art & science associated with bangs because
not all variations suit all face shapes and certainly aren’t suitable (or even
technically possible) with all types of hair.
Additionally, some really work only if complementary makeup is applied
but the core base for the decision is almost always the shape of the face,
particularly the curve of the jaw-line and essentially they pivot from four
points: above the brows, at eye level, at cheekbone level and at the jaw-line. As a general principle, the hairdresser’s four
point rule for bangs is (1) square or heart-shaped faces look best with something
wispier or feathered fringe to add softness, (2) oblong face shapes work well
with blunt-cut bangs, (3) round faces can gain the effect of elongation with side-swept
or curtain bangs and (4) oval-shaped faces will usually accommodate any bang. In the jargon of professionals there are curtain
bangs, bottleneck bangs, blunt bangs, curly bangs, side-swept bangs, layered
bangs, choppy bangs, braided bangs, wispy bangs, wavy bangs, micro bangs,
shaggy bangs, piecey bangs, JBF bangs & clip-in bangs.
Ali Lohan (b 1993) photographed with her pregnant sister wearing Sandal-Malvina Fringe Tank Dress (left). The shoes are Alexandre Birmen Clarita Platforms although, as the pregnancy progresses, the Instagram feed can be expected increasingly to feature sensible and comfortable footwear such as Nike’s Air Vapormax Multicolor sneakers (right).
Fringe “festivals” (Edinburgh Fringe; Adelaide Fringe et
al).are events which “piggy-back” on mainstream “official” events (Edinburgh Festival;
Adelaide Festival et al). They began as “pirate
events” but often became so popular they really came to be considered part of
the event and schedules of both came to be designed in conjunction. The notion of them being “fringe” referenced
(1) their components being exhibited or preformed not in the main performance
spaces but in places on the periphery and (2) their content being (allegedly)
avant-garde (“edgy” in arty talk) or too controversial to be staged in the main
event.
The “lunatic fringe” is really not a phrase from
political science (although not a few academics seem to enjoy using it); and in
this context it was coined by a politician and is a favorite in popular
journalism. Although many dictionaries
early in the twentieth century are said to have described “lunatic fringe” as “a splendidly prejudicial British phrase,
with its suggestion of hair dragged villainously low over the forehead or
edging the circumference of the face in the way that magistrates disapprove of”,
it seems first to have been used of political matters by Theodore Roosevelt
(1858–1919; US president 1901-1909) in a letter to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
(1850–1924) on 4 November 1913. In the letter,
he wrote: “I have got some very amusing
letters from the lunatic fringe. . . . It is extraordinary how they take hold
of people who are just a little mad themselves.”
Lindsay Lohan with "lunatic fringe".
Thereafter, the phrase became widely known and has since
been used of extremist groups or individuals with radical or unconventional
views. It’s in a sense a successor to
the way “ultra” was earlier used (ultimately as both noun and adjective) as a prefix
(ultra-Tory, ultra-revolutionary etc) before emerging in its own right as a “curtailed
word”. In modern use, it’s handy in that
it’s politically agnostic: Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) could
say of his Democratic Party challenger, Joe Biden (b 1942; US president since
2021) that he was “…a candidate that will
destroy this country and he may not do it himself. He will be run by a radical
fringe group of lunatics that will destroy our country” as effortlessly as
earlier Barack Obama (b 1961; US president 2009-2017) could describe the Republican
Party’s Tea Party faction as “… a lunatic
fringe which the Republican leadership should reign in or else the country
would suffer.” However, although
President Roosevelt may have thought he was coining something original, some
forty years earlier the phrase had some currency among hairdressers in West
Virginia, the Wheeling Daily Register in July 1875 reporting “…lunatic fringe is the name given to the
fashion of cropping the hair and letting the ends hang down over the forehead.”
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