plastikos

Plastikos is a Greek adjective meaning able to be formed or molded. It is the etymological source of the English word plastic and related terms. The form traces to ancient Greek roots associated with shaping or forming, and entered Latin as plasticus, then French as plastique, before arriving in English as plastic.

In common usage, plastic describes a broad class of materials that can be molded or shaped and then solidified, including many polymers and composite substances. The term also extends to the concept of plasticity, which refers to the ability of a material or tissue to undergo permanent deformation under stress or to be molded into new shapes through developmental or healing processes.

In the arts, the phrase plastic arts refers to art forms that involve shaping or sculpting materials, such as sculpture, ceramics, and other tactile media. The word emphasizes the physical shaping of materials to form three-dimensional objects or reliefs.

In medicine and surgery, the root appears in the suffix -plasty, derived from the same Greek idea of shaping or molding. This suffix denotes procedures that reconstruct or reshape tissue or organs, as in rhinoplasty (reshaping the nose) or angioplasty (reforming a blood vessel). The underlying concept across these uses is the capacity to alter form through intentional shaping.