Kunststoff, the German word for plastic, is made up of the two words Kunst, meaning synthetic or artificial, and Stoff, meaning substance or material, and was itself an artificial word when it was first introduced. Richard Escales coined the term in 1910, when he drew up the concept for a new journal that was to cover "refined or chemically produced materials". Other synthetic substances had already been developed as substitutes for natural materials at that time, including synthetic resin (Kunstharz), synthetic wood (Kunstholz), synthetic cork (Kunstkork), artificial leather (Kunstleder) and artificial silk (Kunstseide), but it was Escales who first used the word Kunststoff for plastic, taking it as the title of his new magazine.

Wolfgang Glenz