Dictionary

plasticism en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Hellenic *plátʰyō Proto-Hellenic *plát͏̌t͏̌ō? Ancient Greek πλάσσω (plássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Hellenic *-tis Ancient Greek -τῐς (-tĭs) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) ? Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τος (-tos) ▲ Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) ? Ancient Greek -τικός (-tikós) Ancient Greek πλᾰστῐκός (plăstĭkós)der. Latin plasticusder. English plastic Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der. English -ism English plasticism From plastic + -ism.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The state or condition of being plastic.
   • The new man will be plastic and his essence will be plasticism (rather than humanism) . 1970, Cornell Engineer - Volumes 36-37, page 6:
   • The life of ants is crowded with such socialphychological corrections which regulate the mechanism of instinct by individual “plasticisms,” conduct it into useful paths, and thus bring about an adaptation to external advantages and disadvantages. 1919, Scientific American: Supplement - Volume 88, page 167:
   • A new world plasticism has now begun. The capitalists are deceivers, but the socialists are equally deceivers. 2001, Mary Ann Caws, Manifesto: A Century of Isms, →ISBN, page 432:
2. (uncountable, usually) The plastic quality of certain artworks, and the theory or movement of art that embodies this quality.
   • While the expressive possibilities of Neoplasticism are limited to two dimensions (the plane), Elementarism realizes the possibility of plasticism in four dimensions, in the field of time-space. 2013, Linda Dalrymple Henderson, The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art:
   • The only essentiel difference is in the degree of plasticism : the mosaic architecture is rather flat and two-dimensional while the architecture of the miniature introduces chiaroscuro. 1973, Agostino Pertusi, Venezia E Il Levante Fino Al Secolo XV - Volume 2, page 288:
   • The New York plasticism will be also the plasticism of Paris and Petrograd. 1916, Daniel Gregory Mason, The Art of Music: The dance, page 267:
   • But even as the Messmer-Sullivan cartoons emphasized Felix's ingenious use of that plasticism—as we see in his ability to turn his tail or a graphic flourish like an exclamation point into a useful, narrative-furthering prop, thus all the more flattening out the world, making "everything in the drawn world. . . of the same stuff," as Leslie suggests (23) -- the early Mickeys seem far more intent on making space function within the narrative so that it might thereby reveal itself. 2010, J.P. Telotte, Animating Space: From Mickey to WALL-E, →ISBN, page 66:
   • But it also developed wonderfully in linear delineation, as seen in Seison's “Water-Drawing Ceremony”; in serene spatial constructivism, as seen in Gyoshu's “Tea Ceremony Room”; and in sharp and sensual plasticism as in Yuki's “Moonlit Night." 1969, A Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Oriental Arts:
3. (uncountable, usually) The ubiquitous use of plastic.
   • Such an individual will almost certainly have noticed by this time a kind of creeping plasticism in the clothes he wears, the appliances he uses, the furniture he sits on, the car he drives and possibly even the house he lives in. 1967, Industrial Design - Volume 14, page 161:
   • No-one railed against them more persistently than Norman Mailer, for whom 'creeping plasticism' was taking over the world. 2014, Christopher Hall, Materials: A Very Short Introduction, →ISBN, page 90:
   • McDonald's, Arby's, Burger King, Pizza Hut blurred by, molded tributes to plasticism and bad food. 1985, Carl Ramm, Detroit Combat, →ISBN, page 130:

Forms

Relateds

neoplasticism