Fringe/Bang

[The Tiggster]

In Britain you go to your hairdresser & have your fringe cut, in America it is a bang. Can anyone tell me why it is known a "bang"?

Thanks!

[Quizmonster]

It is much the same use as when we say: "Bang in the middle", meaning exactly or directly in the middle. The suggestion is of something abrupt and straight.

In America and Australia, when horses were being rounded up, one method of counting them was to cut their tail-hair straight across. You then knew which ones remained still to be counted. This was known as 'bang-tailing'...ie straight/directly cut. The same applies to human hair cut straight across the forehead.

[The Tiggster]

Thank you Quizmonster. I can tell you knew that already!

[Kingaroo]

"Bangs" can only be plural. You mostly "have" them, but could also "wear" them.

Shirley has bangs and a pony tail.
I have bangs and pigtails.
His bangs are crooked; he needs them trimmed..
I stopped wearing bangs when I got glasses.

[Kingaroo]

In the US we'd be more likely to say "smack in the middle" than "bang in the middle" -- isn't that funny when banging and smacking are similar!

[Quizmonster]

So all we need now, Kingaroo, is for Americans to start calling their fringes "smacks"! (I'm joking, by the way.) Strangely enough, in its earliest uses in the 1870s/80s, 'bang' for 'fringe' was invariably singular.

[Clare A]

Quizmonster's horse explanation is one I've heard. I'm English, and we refer to 'banged' tails cut straight across. What I didn't know was that it was used as an aid to counting them. I thought it was just aesthetic.

[Quizmonster]

Dear Clare, I've no doubt but that nowadays a straight-cut British horse-tail is purely aesthetic. However, when mustangs and brumbies were being rounded up and corralled en masse on the American prairies or the Aussie outback, the technique was certainly an easy and useful counting-method. Cheers