different between fringer vs wringer

English

Etymology

fringe +? -er

Noun

fringer (plural fringers)

1. A person who makes fringes for garments
2. (scrapbooks) A device for making paper fringes
3. One who attends Fringe theater festival (e.g., the Edinburgh Fringe festival)
4. A person on the fringe of anything; e.g. a crowd, or society in general
   • 1998, Jack Vance, Night Lamp [1]

     The region was remote; the early explorers were pirates, fugitives and fringers, followed by miscellaneous settlers, to the effect that Camberwell had been inhabited for many thousands of years.

   • 2001, Leslie A Turvey in Blessed Are They Which Are Persecuted, March 25, 2001

     In any gathering there are always those at the fringe of the crowd where they can creep away when the message goes against their liking. You might call them fringers.

   • 2001, Orson Scott Card, The Folk of the Fringe [2]

     If at any point a fringer fails to plant, if at any point the soil is broken, then the rains eat channels under it, and tear away the fringe on either side, and eat back into farmland behind it.

   • 2001, R Celeste Ray, Highland Heritage [3]

     These fringers are distinguished from mainstreamers by their lack of exposure to, or interest in, Jacobitism and Highlandism.

English

Etymology

From Middle English wringere, equivalent to wring +? -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?????(?)/
• Rhymes: -???(?)

Noun

wringer (plural wringers)

1. One who wrings.
   • 2000, Marlene Evans, Redbirds and Rubies and Rainbows (page 33)

     We wringers of hands don't really want a step to take! We want to continue our hand-wringing and feel hostile toward anyone who acts as if there's something simple to do about any problem.

2. A device for drying laundry consisting of two rollers between which the wet laundry is squeezed (or wrung); a mangle.
3. (figuratively) Something that causes pain, hardship, or exertion; an ordeal.

Derived terms

• put through the wringer