What is "fringe"

Fringe \Fringe\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fringed (fr[i^]njd); p. pr. & vb. n. Fringing.] To adorn the edge of with a fringe or as with a fringe.

Precipices fringed with grass. -- Bryant.

Fringing reef. See Coral reefs, under Coral.

Fringe \Fringe\ (fr[i^]nj), n. [OF, fringe, F. frange, prob. fr. L. fimbria fiber, thread, fringe, cf. fibra fiber, E. fiber, fimbriate.]

1. An ornamental appendage to the border of a piece of stuff, originally consisting of the ends of the warp, projecting beyond the woven fabric; but more commonly made separate and sewed on, consisting sometimes of projecting ends, twisted or plaited together, and sometimes of loose threads of wool, silk, or linen, or narrow strips of leather, or the like.

2. Something resembling in any respect a fringe; a line of objects along a border or edge; a border; an edging; a margin; a confine.

   The confines of grace and the fringes of repentance.
   --Jer. Taylor.

3. (Opt.) One of a number of light or dark bands, produced by the interference of light; a diffraction band; -- called also interference fringe.

4. (Bot.) The peristome or fringelike appendage of the capsules of most mosses. See Peristome.

early 14c., "ornamental bordering; material for a fringe," from Old French frenge "thread, strand, fringe, hem, border" (early 14c.), from Vulgar Latin *frimbia, metathesis of Late Latin fimbria, from Latin fimbriae (plural) "fibers, threads, fringe," which is of uncertain origin. Meaning "a border, edge" is from 1640s. Figurative sense of "outer edge, margin," is first recorded 1894. As an adjective by 1809. Related: Fringes. Fringe benefits is recorded from 1952.

late 15c., "decorate with a fringe or fringes," from fringe (n.). Related: Fringed; fringing.

1. Outside the mainstream. n. 1 A decorative border. 2 A marginal or peripheral part. v

2. 1 (context transitive English) To decorate with fringe. 2 (context transitive English) To serve as a fringe.

1. v. adorn with a fringe; "The weaver fringed the scarf"

2. decorate with or as if with a surrounding fringe; "fur fringed the hem of the dress"

1. n. the outside boundary or surface of something [syn: periphery, outer boundary]

2. a part of the city far removed from the center; "they built a factory on the outskirts of the city" [syn: outskirt]

3. a social group holding marginal or extreme views; "members of the fringe believe we should be armed with guns at all times"

4. edging consisting of hanging threads or tassels

Fringe may refer to:

• Fringe (hair), that part of the hair overhanging the forehead. Also known as "bangs" in American English
• Fringe (trim), an ornamental appendage to the border of an item
• Fringe (TV series), a U.S. television series
• "The Fringe" (short story), a short story by Orson Scott Card
• Fringe Product, a record label
• Fringe tree or Chionanthus, a genus of flowering plants
• Adelaide Fringe Festival, an arts festival in Australia
• Edinburgh Festival Fringe, an arts festival
• The Fringe, the setting for the computer game Tachyon: The Fringe
• Fringe (organization), an independent student organization at Carnegie Mellon University

Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci. It premiered on the Fox Broadcasting network on September 9, 2008, and concluded on January 18, 2013, after five seasons and 100 episodes. The series follows Olivia Dunham ( Anna Torv), Peter Bishop ( Joshua Jackson), and Walter Bishop ( John Noble), all members of the fictional Fringe Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, based in Boston, Massachusetts, under the supervision of Homeland Security. The team uses fringe science and FBI investigative techniques to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe.

The series has been described as a hybrid of fantasy and procedural dramas and serials, influenced by film and television shows such as Lost, The X-Files, Altered States, and The Twilight Zone. The series began as a traditional mystery-of-the-week series and became more serialized in later seasons. Most episodes contain a standalone plot, with several others also exploring the series' overarching mythology.

Critical reception was at first lukewarm but became more favorable after the first season, when the series began to explore its mythology, including parallel universes and alternate timelines. The show, as well as the cast and crew, has been nominated for many major awards. Despite its move to the " Friday night death slot" and low ratings, the series has developed a cult following. It has also spawned two six-part comic book series, an alternate reality game, and three novels.

The fourth season of the American science fiction television series Fringe premiered on Fox on September 23, 2011 and concluded on May 11, 2012, consisting of 22 episodes. The series is produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. The show was officially renewed for a fourth season on March 24, 2011.

Fringe is an ornamental textile trim applied to an edge of a textile item, such as drapery, a flag, or epaulettes.

Fringe originated as a way of preventing a cut piece of fabric from unraveling when a hemming was not used. Several strands of weft threads would be removed, and the remaining warp threads would be twisted or braided together to prevent unraveling. In modern fabrics, fringe is more commonly made separately and sewn on. Modern "add-on" fringe may consist wool, silk, linen, or narrow strips of leather. The use of fringe is ancient, and early fringes were generally made of unspun wool (rather than spun or twisted threads).

There are many types of fringe. Particularly in Western Europe, as wealth and luxury items proliferated during the Renaissance, types of fringe began to assume commonly accepted names. Styles of fringes were clearly defined in England by at least 1688.

Type of fringe include:

• Bullion fringe, twisted yarn which generally contains threads of silver or gold. The name derives from bullion hose, which had a twisted element at the top that resembled this type of fringe. Modern bullion fringe varies widely in texture and width, but generally is only in length.
• Campaign fringe, from the French word campane (meaning "bell"), consists of small, bell-like tassels on the end.
• Thread fringe, untwisted and unbraided loose warp threads.

The first season of the American science fiction television series Fringe commenced airing on the Fox network on September 9, 2008, and concluded on May 12, 2009. It was produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, and its showrunners were Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman. The first season introduces a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security. The team uses unorthodox "fringe" science and FBI investigative techniques to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe. FBI agent Olivia Dunham is portrayed by actress Anna Torv, while actors Joshua Jackson and John Noble play father-son duo Peter and Walter Bishop. Other regular cast members include Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole, Blair Brown, Mark Valley, and Kirk Acevedo.

The season contained 21 episodes, although only 20 of them aired as part of the first season. The unaired episode, " Unearthed", was aired a few days before the episode " Johari Window" as a special episode during the show's second season.

The fifth and final season of the American Fox science fiction television series Fringe premiered on September 28, 2012, and concluded on January 18, 2013. The series is produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. The show was officially renewed for a 13-episode fifth season on April 26, 2012. The fifth season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on May 7, 2013.

J. H. Wyman served as a sole showrunner during the last season, with four other writers: Alison Schapker, Graham Roland, David Fury and Kristin Cantrell. Lead actors Anna Torv, John Noble, Joshua Jackson, Jasika Nicole reprised their roles as Olivia Dunham, Walter Bishop, Peter Bishop, and Astrid Farnsworth, respectively. Previous series regulars Lance Reddick, Blair Brown and Seth Gabel returned as special guest stars.

This season takes place in 2036, the Observer-ruled dystopian future previously seen in Season 4's " Letters of Transit". The opening sequence for the season retains the one featured in "Letters of Transit", with terms including community, freedom, joy, imagination, individuality and free will.

The ninth episode of the season, " Black Blotter", serves as a "19th episode", showing hallucinations from Walter's drug trip. The hunt for the tapes which contain the plan to defeat the Observers, serve as the way to contain one story into one episode, thus creating a procedural side of storytelling.

The fifth season was received positively by television critics, earning 78 out of 100 on the aggregate review website Metacritic, indicating a "generally favorable" critical reception. Reviewers praised the conclusion of the story, with most critics lauding the final scene. They said that the finale satisfied hardcore fans, created a great integration of elements from previous seasons and made a natural conclusion for the characters.

The second season of the American science fiction television series Fringe commenced airing on the Fox network on September 17, 2009, and concluded on May 20, 2010. The season was produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, and its showrunners were Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman. Actors Anna Torv, John Noble, and Joshua Jackson reprised their roles as FBI agent Olivia Dunham and father-son duo Peter and Walter Bishop. Previous series regulars Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole, Blair Brown, and Kirk Acevedo also returned, though with Acevedo in a limited capacity.

The season followed the continuation of a war between two universes, the prime and the parallel. It was set in the former, until the last several episodes when Peter Bishop (Jackson) journeyed back to the parallel universe after being lured there by his real father, "Walternate" (Noble). While co-creator J.J. Abrams described the first season as "identifying that there is an enemy", he referred to season two as "getting to know the enemy" as it "build[s] to a very specific type of confrontation" between the two universes. The writers focused on their characters' development, in particular making them more comfortable with each other while solving cases for Fringe Division. By inventing the "mythalone" style of episode, the producers sought to create the perfect episode that mixed standalone episode qualities for casual viewers with the further development of the series' mythology for regular viewers.

In a departure from the previous season, the second season aired in a new competitive timeslot at 9:00 pm on Thursdays. It contained 22 episodes, plus an unaired episode that was produced during the first season; " Unearthed" aired as a special as episode 11 of season two, days prior to " Johari Window", the first new episode of 2010. Also part of the season was the series' only musical episode, " Brown Betty", which was produced at the request of the network. The season finale, " Over There", fully introduced the parallel universe and laid the groundwork for the third season.

Fringe ended its second season with a per episode average of 6.252 million total viewers and a 2.3 ratings share in the 18–49 demographic. The season was generally well-received by critics, though most agreed that the second half was a considerable improvement over the first. The series was chosen for a number of 2010 "best of television" lists, including The New York Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Entertainment Weekly. Despite its critical acclaim, Fringe failed to earn any major category nominations at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, but did receive nominations at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Golden Reel Awards, and Satellite Awards; at the Saturn Awards, Torv and guest actor Leonard Nimoy won in their respective categories. The second season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on September 14, 2010, in region 2 on September 27, and in region 4 on November 10.

The third season of the American science fiction television series Fringe commencing airing on the Fox network on September 23, 2010, and concluded on May 6, 2011. Twenty-two episodes long, the season was produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, and its showrunners were Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman. Lead actors Anna Torv, John Noble, and Joshua Jackson reprised their roles as FBI agent Olivia Dunham and the father-son duo Walter and Peter Bishop. Previous series regulars Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole, and Blair Brown also returned, along with recurring guest stars Kirk Acevedo, Seth Gabel, and Ryan McDonald.

Building off the finale from the previous season, Fringes third season dealt with a war between the prime and parallel universes. During the first part of the season, odd-numbered episodes mostly took place in the parallel universe and have a red title sequence, while even-numbered episodes mostly took place in the prime universe and have the original blue title sequence. In episode eight, " Entrada", the title sequence is a mixture of blue and red, and since have been either blue or red or both to signify the universal focus of the episode. In the rest of the season, however, the episodes focus on the prime universe with brief shifts to the parallel universe.

Wyman and Pinkner saw Fringe as two shows, where they could provide a detailed mythology that was equally compelling in both universes. Eager to explore "what-if" moments, historical idiosyncrasies and other differences were inserted to help disambiguate the two worlds. Much of the season was designed around a doomsday device, as they believed its mysteriousness was "a great story engine for us." The nineteenth episode, " Lysergic Acid Diethylamide", contained long sequences of animation in order to facilitate guest actor's Leonard Nimoy's retirement from acting. While the writers had attempted to continue the idea of the "mythalone" for both casual and devoted fans, Fringe mythology became more visible in the last episodes of the season. Equating the final three episodes to a chapter in a novel, the writers "linked [them] in one continuous story arc."

The third season was positively received by television critics, and it earned 77 out of 100 on the aggregate review website Metacritic, indicating critical reception as "generally favorable." Reviewers reacted well to the exploration of the parallel universe, and the performances of Torv and Noble, who each played differing versions of their original characters, were lauded. Fringe ended its third season with an average of 5.83 million viewers per episode, placing 99th for the network television season. The New York Times called the series "the best major-network show that no one is watching." Despite its low ratings, Fox renewed the series for a fourth season on March 24, 2011.