plastic

English

Alternative forms

• plastick (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin plasticus (“of molding”), from Ancient Greek πλαστικός (plastikós), from πλάσσω (plássō, “to mold, form”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈplæstɪk/, /ˈplɑːstɪk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈplæstɪk/,

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æstɪk
• Hyphenation: plas‧tic

Noun

plastic (countable and uncountable, plural plastics)

1. A synthetic, solid, hydrocarbon-based polymer, whether thermoplastic or thermosetting.
   • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field. Dr Mincer and Dr Amaral-Zettler found evidence of them on their marine plastic, too.

2. (colloquial, metonymically) Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.
   • 2008, Lily Allen, The Fear:

     It's all about fast cars and cussing each other / but it doesn't matter cause I'm packing plastic / and that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic.

3. (figurative, slang) insincerity; fakeness, or a person who is fake or arrogant, or believes that they are better than the rest of the population.
   • 2004, Rosalind Wiseman, Tina Fey, Mean Girls:

     Cady: You know I couldn't invite you. I had to pretend to be plastic.
     Janis: Hey, buddy, you're not pretending anymore. You're plastic. Cold, shiny, hard plastic.

   • 2011, Emily Kapnek, Suburgatory:

     Tessa: Pretty ironic that a box full of rubbers landed me to a town full of plastic.

4. (slang, countable) An instance of plastic surgery.
   • 1951, Arnold Hano, The Big Out, page 146:

     Somebody's had a plastic done on his nose, I think, or else somebody bent it out of shape since I last saw it.

5. (obsolete) A sculptor, moulder.
6. (archaic) Any solid but malleable substance.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: プラスチック (purasuchikku)
• → Korean: 플라스틱 (peullaseutik)
• → Swahili: plastiki

Translations

Adjective

plastic (comparative more plastic, superlative most plastic)

1. Capable of being moulded; malleable, flexible, pliant.

   Synonyms: malleable, flexible, pliant; see also Thesaurus:moldable

   Antonym: elastic

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC:

     , Folio Society 1973, page 103:

     the rage […] betook itself at last to certain missile weapons; which, though from their plastic nature they threatened neither the loss of life or of limb, were, however, sufficiently dreadful to a well-dressed lady.

   • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth:

     [A]nd it is highly probable that along with more splendid habits of life entered a more lavish use of the gorgeous stores laid open to the plastic powers of fiction.

   • 1898, Journal of Microscopy, page 256:

     Plastic mud, brownish tinted, rich in floatings.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 60:

     Man tracks and dog tracks, they left a clear imprint on its plastic surface, and came out on an open beach, stretching a mile away to another headland.

   • 2012, Adam Zeman, ‘Only Connect’, Literary Review, number 399:

     while the broad pattern of connections between brain regions is similar in every healthy human brain, their details – their number, size and strength – are thought to underpin our individuality, as synapses are ‘plastic’, shaped by experience.

2. (medicine, now rare) Producing tissue.
3. (dated) Creative, formative.
   • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Jacob Tonson , and John Barber , →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     Benign Creator! let thy plastic hand dispose its own effect

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. , (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J Wilford, , →OCLC:

     See plastic Nature working to this end.

4. (biology) Capable of adapting to varying conditions; characterized by environmental adaptability.
5. Of or pertaining to the inelastic, non-brittle, deformation of a material.
6. Made of plastic.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.

   • 1995, Radiohead (lyrics and music), “Fake Plastic Trees”, in The Bends:

     A green plastic watering can / For a fake Chinese rubber plant / In a fake plastic earth / That she bought from a rubber man / In a town full of rubber plans / To get rid of itself

7. Inferior or not the real thing.

   Synonym: ersatz

   • 1969, Lowell D. Streiker, The gospel of irreligious religion, page 83:

     The Hippie has been replaced by the pseudo-Hippie, the plastic Hippie, the weekend Hippie

   • 2007, Daniel Sinker, We owe you nothing: Punk Planet: the collected interviews, page 238:

     People always try to say that we're garage rock, but that scene is so plastic. Some dude in a band has tight jeans, dyed black hair, and a starving girlfriend with bangs, and people call it indie rock. It's so gross.

   • 2008, Matt James Mason, The pirate's dilemma: how youth culture is reinventing capitalism:

     Frustrated by a globalized music industry force-feeding them plastic pop music, hackers, remixers, and activists began to mobilize...

8. (figurative, informal, of a person) fake; insincere.

   Synonyms: fake, insincere

   Antonyms: genuine, sincere

   • 1966, Calvin C. Hernton, White papers for white Americans, page 67:

     He kissed the white woman once, and it was so artificial, so plastic (that's the word, plastic) that one wondered why did they bother at all.

   • 1967, “Plastic People”, in Frank Zappa (music), Absolutely Free, performed by The Mothers of Invention:

     Then go home and check yourself / You think we're singing 'bout someone else… / But you're plastic people / You gotta go

   • 1971, Gil Scott-Heron (lyrics and music), “Lady Day and John Coltrane”, in Pieces of a Man:

     Plastic people with plastic minds / Are on their way to plastic homes

   • 1973, Eric Berne, What do you say after you say hello?, page 120:

     In fact it seems as though there are two kinds of people in the world: real people and plastic people, as the Flower Children used to say.

   • 2006, Catherine Coulter, Born to Be Wild, page 71:

     But I don't think she would be happy in Los Angeles — it's so plastic and cheap and they expect the women to be whores to get anywhere.

   • 2009, Lady Gaga, Paparazzi:

     We're plastic but we'll still have fun!

   • 2014, James Baldwin, James Baldwin: The Last Interview: and other Conversations, →ISBN:

     And further, I don't see anything in American life – for myself – to aspire to. Nothing at all. It's all so very false. So shallow, so plastic, so morally and ethically corrupt.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• placits

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English plastic.

Noun

plastic

1. (sometimes proscribed) plastic

Usage notes

Discouraged in engineering circles in favour of plast.

Declension

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English plastic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplɛs.tɪk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: plas‧tic

Noun

plastic n (uncountable)

1. (Netherlands, uncountable) plastic (synthetic polymer substance)

   Synonym: plastiek

Descendants

• → Caribbean Javanese: plastig, plèstig

Noun

plastic m (plural plastics)

1. (Netherlands, countable, chemistry) plastic (specific type of synthetic polymer)

   Synonym: plastiek

Adjective

plastic (not comparable)

1. (Netherlands) plastic

   Synonym: plastieken

Inflection

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English plastic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plas.tik/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

plastic m (plural plastics)

1. plastic explosive

Derived terms

• plasticage
• plastiquer

Further reading

• “plastic”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French plastique.

Adjective

plastic m or n (feminine singular plastică, masculine plural plastici, feminine and neuter plural plastice)

1. plastic

Declension

Related terms

• plasticitate