plastique

Forms

plastique (plural plastiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin plasticus (“relating to modelling”) and its feminine used as a noun, plastica (“the art of modelling”), which come from Ancient Greek πλαστικός (plastikós, “malleable, fit for modelling”) and πλαστική (plastikḗ) (the art of shaping forms).^[2][3][4][5] The Greek adjective is formed from the verb πλάσσω (plássō, “to mould, shape”).^[4][5][6] Rey links the Greek family, with less certainty, to an Indo-European root expressing the idea of spreading out.^[3]

It is a doublet of the English word plastic.^[1] The noun plastic, used in French for a plastic explosive, was borrowed from English in 1945, though this use may also come straight from the French adjective.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1553, in the phrase art plastique in Jean Martin's translation of Alberti's treatise on architecture, of the art of producing forms by modelling.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective was rare until the 18th century, when it was used of the power to give living beings their form (vertu plastique, 1752).^[2][3] The feminine noun la plastique named modelling as opposed to carving in 1765.^[2] In the 19th century the adjective spread: “merely physical, a matter of form” (1805), “malleable, mouldable” (1808, argile plastique), and the arts plastiques (1836), the arts that create visible forms.^[2][3] The noun la plastique came to mean the pursuit of beauty of form (1836), then the shape of a thing (1842) and the beauty of a person's body (1870).^[2][3]

Biology took up the adjective for what builds living tissue (aliments plastiques, 1855), and surgery made chirurgie plastique (1930).^[2][3] The masculine noun first named any material that can be modelled or moulded, such as clay and wax (1875).^[2][3] The modern sense, synthetic material moulded with heat, dates from 1913 but became common only around 1945.^[3][7] Since then plastique is also an invariable adjective for objects made of it.^[3]

Timeline

• 1553 – Art plastique in Jean Martin's translation of Alberti.^[2]
• 1752 – Vertu plastique, the power to form living beings, in the Dictionnaire de Trévoux.^[2]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie uses la plastique for the art of modelling.^[2]
• 1808 – Argile plastique “mouldable clay”.^[2]
• 1836 – Arts plastiques appears in Quinet.^[2][3]
• 1870 – La plastique is used of the beauty of a body.^[2][3]
• 1875 – The masculine noun names any mouldable material.^[2]
• 1913 – First record of the sense “synthetic plastic”.^[3]
• 1930 – Chirurgiens plastiques in Paul Morand.^[2]
• 1945 – Plastic “plastic explosive” is borrowed from English.^[3]
• 1950 – A Larousse supplement defines les plastiques as synthetic materials.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to the art of giving form to things;^[8][2][9] arts plastiques, the visual arts such as sculpture, painting, drawing and architecture.^[8][2][9]
2. Concerned with outward form or physical beauty.^[2][8]
3. Chirurgie plastique: surgery that alters the shape of the body or face, plastic surgery.^[8]
4. Malleable, able to be moulded.^[2][9]
5. (biology) Contributing to the formation of living tissue.^[10][6]
6. (physics, of a deformation) Permanent, irreversible.^[1]
7. Made of plastic (invariable in this use).^[3]

Noun

1. (masculine) Plastic, a synthetic material that can be moulded.^[1][3][11]
2. (masculine) A plastic explosive (also spelled plastic).^[11][9][3]
3. (feminine) The art of modelling forms; the beauty of a body's shapes, physique.^[2][8][3]

Word family

• plasticité
• microplastique

Related words

• plastic
• plasticage
• plasticien
• plastiquer
• plastifier
• plastiquement

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)