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Flammable and Inflammable

Flammable and Inflammable

Flammable and Inflammable

(OP)
Does anyone know how these two words came to have the same meaning?

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

Largely because people are stupid.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

in·flam·ma·ble      /?n?flæm?b?l/  Pronunciation[in-flam-uh-buhl]
–adjective
1.    capable of being set on fire; combustible; flammable.
2.    easily aroused or excited, as to passion or anger; irascible: an inflammable disposition.
–noun
3.    something inflammable.
[Origin: 1595–1605; < ML inflamm?bilis, equiv. to L inflamm?(re) to inflame + -bilis -ble]

—Related forms
in·flam·ma·bil·i·ty, in·flam·ma·ble·ness, noun
in·flam·ma·bly, adverb

—Synonyms 2. fiery, volatile, choleric.
—Usage note Inflammable and flammable both mean “combustible.” Inflammable is the older by about 200 years. Flammable now has certain technical uses, particularly as a warning on vehicles carrying combustible materials, because of a belief that some might interpret the intensive prefix in- of inflammable as a negative prefix and thus think the word means “noncombustible.” Inflammable is the word more usually used in nontechnical and figurative contexts:

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

That adaptation inflames my sensitive regions!

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

No, that's a different condition that you should get looked at, ivy. hehe

"American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This flam·ma·ble   Audio Help   (fl?m'?-b?l)  Pronunciation Key  
adj.   Easily ignited and capable of burning rapidly; inflammable.


[From Latin flamm?re, to set fire to, from flamma, flame; see bhel-1 in Indo-European roots.]

flam'ma·bil'i·ty n., flam'ma·ble n.

Usage Note: Historically, flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. However, the presence of the prefix in- has misled many people into assuming that inflammable means "not flammable" or "noncombustible." The prefix -in in inflammable is not, however, the Latin negative prefix -in, which is related to the English -un and appears in such words as indecent and inglorious. Rather, this -in is an intensive prefix derived from the Latin preposition in. This prefix also appears in the word enflame. But many people are not aware of this derivation, and for clarity's sake it is advisable to use only flammable to give warnings."

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

Technically flammable and combustible are not the same, especially for liquids.
Petrol (gasoline) is a flammable liquid, diesel is a combustible liquid, as defined by their flashpoint.

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

I cite Strunk and White's Elements of Style:

"Flammable. An oddity, chiefly useful in saving lives. The common work meaning 'combustible' is inflammable. But some people are thrown off by the in- and think inflammable means 'not combustible.' For this reason, trucks carrying gasoline or explosives are now marked FLAMMABLE. Unless you are operating such a truck and hence are concerned with the safety of children and illiterates, use inflammable."

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

It seems unreasonable to label something an illiterate oddity when it's been around for a couple hundred years.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

Yes, it's really confusing.

" But some people are thrown off by the in- and think inflammable means 'not combustible.'"

We have to cater to the perpetually confused, so we will both butcher the language AND stick a little sign up that has a picture of a fire on on it, just to accommodate.

old field guy

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

The three amigos:

... the infamous ("More than Famous, He's In-Famous!"), El Guapo.

High on my list of best bad films.

- Steve

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

I think from a common sense point in the pursuit of safety, flammable is the better word to use, it removes all danger of wrong understanding.  If life is at risk is it really worth the academic nicety as to the correct form, word root or history. I think not.

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

I agree, word 'inflammable' needs to be abolished as it is only a source of confusion.

Use of words Flammable and non-flammable would be much more descriptive and safe. Especially when caution signs are not meant for Old english laurets only.

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

...in-flamable, also has the connotation of "...in flames..." or soemthing that CAN BE "...in-flames..., ie: burning"

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

Artisi is 100% correct.

Preventing people from burning is more important that "correct" grammar.

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

'Inflammed' is still useful for describing a medical condition.

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

I don't doubt or disagree for one minute that inflame, inflamed, inflammable, inflammation is not the correct English to use in appropriate situations, just that inflammable is to many people confusing which makes it a dangerous word to use in a situation where safety in concerned. Bearing in mind you also have flame, flames, flaming,flamed, flameproof, flame-retardant and flammable which only confuses the issue, especially when inflammable and flammable are inter-changeable and it seems that flammable is clearly understood.

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

However, if you are a believer in Darwinism don't we need little tests like this to continue to evolve?

That said, it can be confusing for kids if no one else and I suppose they deserve the chance to learn better when they're older.

Plus of course any written warning will only work in the language it's written in.  Hence certain standard symbols.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

Priceless - no price?

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

Autoantonyms are words that have opposite definitions (even if one happens to be more common).  ENJOIN and RAVEL are two examples.

We seem to be talking about the opposite of autoantonyms here; i.e. two words with what would "appear" to be opposite definitions, but which in fact have the same definition.  I'm sure that a word exists to name such pairs (besides "annoying" or "confusing"...)

The "appearance" of opposite definitions sometimes arises from incorrectly interpreting suffixes; "in-" can be an intensifier, or a negation.  Not going to be clear by inspection which sense is contained by a word.  

[  COMPUTER SPELLCHECKERS: Checking everything except context (so far).  ]

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

hmm.  I thought they were just called antonyms.  Are the extra couple syllables (auto) important?

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

Years ago I remember reading warning label on bottle of white out, you know, the accountant's best friend, that used the term "ininflammable".  I believe the company has since changed composition to be less volatile and dropped the extremely unusual terminology.

RE: Flammable and Inflammable

Nonuninflammable:

would this be burnable, combustable, explosive, fire-retardent, or flammable?

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