Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Thermoplastic
/ˌθɜːrmoʊˈplæstɪk/noun
A plastic that softens when heated and hardens again on cooling, repeatedly.
The Greek roots
θερμός
thermós
hot, warm
πλαστικός
plastikós
able to be moulded
Literally: “mouldable by heat”
The story of the word
The distinction that matters on a workshop floor is thermoplastic against thermoset: one melts and can be remade, the other cures once and then chars rather than flows. That single property decides what can be recycled, which is why polyethylene bottles come back as fleece and cured epoxy comes back as nothing. πλαστικός named a sculptor's skill with wet clay for two thousand years before it named a material.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
plasticplasterprotoplasmthermometer
In a sentence
The splint is a thermoplastic, so you soften it in hot water and mould it to the arm.