From the Greek plastikos, to be plastic is to be formed or molded, susceptible to change or modification, capable of being deformed. To be plastic is to be pliant, yielding, malleable. But it was manufacturing, not philosophy, that motivated the well-meaning businessman to steer the young graduate into plastics. Plastic is a substance that at some stage in its manufacturing can be shaped by flow, possibly with the application of heat or pressure, often with the addition of reinforcing agents, fillers and compounds called plasticizers. You can throw a plastic object, beat on it, bend it, work with it, machine it, even shoot it.
Plastic is tough.
It's everything from the dashboard of a car to a child's toy. I'm writing this on a plastic keyboard. Plastics surely were the future. Polymerization is a plastics manufacturing method that involves materials with high molecular weights and semisynthetic organic compounds. Polymers are the types of plastics created by polymerization.