elastic [M17th] First recorded in the 1650s, elastic was originally used to describe the way that gas is able to expand to fill whatever space is available. In those days some people thought that gas particles acted like a coiled spring, an idea that led elastic to take on its modern sense. The woven fabric that stretches first appears in the mid 19th century in a reference to ‘elastic Parisian corsets’. The word comes from Greek elastikos, from elaunein ‘to drive’.