A strong plastic made in thin sheets, used especially to cover tables and kitchen counters so the top is hard, smooth, and easy to wipe. It began as a brand name and then became a common word for that kind of surface, the way people say a brand when they mean the stuff. The company coined the name in 1913 to mean “for mica”: they wanted a cheaper stand-in for mica, a mineral then used to keep electricity from jumping where it should not. Later the same kind of sheet became famous on kitchen tops, not only in electrical parts. In speech you hear a Formica table, Formica counters. A capital F is still common because it is a trademark, though people often treat it as an ordinary noun. Though actually, it is not made from ants, and it is not a fancy spelling of form.