English to French translation

Formica

May 12, 2005

We're catching up on the 4th series of Six Feet Under and in the second episode, one of the characters gives the origin of the word formica: in the beginning of the 20th century, tougher, lighter and less costly insulators were needed, and someone had the idea of creating a sort of laminated plastic material, which ended up doing a marvellous job. It came to replace mica, the stuff that was used in those days; as the new product was a substitute "for mica", that's what they called it. Then it invaded everyone's kitchens, fell out of fashion and is now probably lurking somewhere, waiting for its big revival.

Comments

The other OED definitions of formica are fun:

1. Ent. The typical genus of the family Formicidæ; the ant.

1865 LIVINGSTONE Zambesi ix. 190 We could not [sleep] because of the attacks by the fighting battalions of a small species of formica. 1878 BELL Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 272 Many Hymenoptera, Formica, Cynips, also possess it.

2. A kind of abscess, ulcer, or excrescence, occurring esp. in a hawk's bill or a dog's ears.

c1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 213 Pustule {th}at come{th} of humours corrupt as ignis persicus & miliaris & fformica schall be purged. 1543 TRAHERON tr. Vigo's Chirurg. II. vi. 20b, Formica is a lytle pustle, or many pustles that come upon the skynne..The thyrde [sygne] is pryckynge, and it is a sodayn bytyng as it were of an ante wherof it hath hys name. 1614 MARKHAM Cheap Husb. (1623) 161 The Formicas in Hawkes is a hard horne growing vpon the beake of a Hawke. 1674 N. COX Gentl. Recreat. II. (1677) 248 Of the Formica. This is a Distemper which commonly seizeth on the Horn of Hawks Beaks, which will eat the Beak away. 1846 J. BAXTER Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 225 Formica or Scab in the Ears [of a dog].

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May 13, 2005