Fringe

How to spell fringe

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fringe

What does fringe mean?

1. nounA decorative border of hanging threads or tassels along the edge of fabric.
2. nounThe outer part or margin of an area, group, or activity.
3. nounA band of hair cut to hang down over the forehead.

Fringe in a sentence

• The tablecloth had a gold fringe stitched along each side.

• The new houses were built on the northern fringe of the town.

• The hairdresser trimmed her fringe so it stopped just above her eyebrows.

• She trimmed the loose fringe from the old curtain.

• His views sat on the political fringe for many years.

• He kept brushing his fringe out of his eyes during the meeting.

Where does fringe come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the 1300s from the Old French frenge, which described an ornamental border of hanging threads. The French form developed from the Late Latin fimbria, a word meaning fibres, shreds, or a border of threads, and in classical Latin it often referred to the edge of a garment. The shift from Latin fimbria to French frenge involved a reshuffling of sounds, which is partly why the modern spelling looks so unlike its Latin ancestor. Over time the literal sense of a decorative border broadened into figurative uses: the outer edge of a place, the margins of a group, and, in British usage, the band of hair falling across the forehead. The same Latin root survives in the rarer anatomical and botanical word fimbria, still used for a fringe-like structure.

How the word is built

• fringe (from Late Latin fimbria: fibres, threads, border); single root, no affixes