Edit: SERIOUSLY, THANK YOU—
BTW my confusions stems from them having the same meaning online
Flammable: “easily set on fire”
Inflammable: “easily set on fire”
Definitions from Oxford Languages
In: Other
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This has caused serious fires in India where English is not the first language. People thinking that “Inflammable” meant fire retardant.
I read some guidance in the early ’90s that made that point.
In UK – when it comes to building insulation or cladding, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s the cheapest most profitable option.
Inflammable means flammable? What kind of crazy mixed up world is this?
Burned down another hospital Dr. Nick Riviera?
*Inflammable means flammable? What a country!!*
As it’s been mentioned the prefix in has two different meanings. To understand you need to understand the etymology of these words. I’ll try to keep it eli5:
First of all, let’s set forth the English definitions.
Flammable = easily set on fire.
Nonflammable = not easily set on fire.
Inflammable = flammable. Now, some dictionaries or people/professions may say it means nonflammable but that’s a modern re-defining of it so I will ignore that for this.
There are two Latin words at the heart of this all. In Latin, flammāre (flammō among other conjugated forms) means to set on fire (from flamma for flame). Inflammāre is a synonym in Latin, maybe with a more “doing” connotation because of the in- prefix. So, both of these mean to set on fire in Latin.
The English word inflammable is from the Latin inflammāre simply using the English -able suffix which makes something an adjective that can be done. So, is set on fire-able.
Flammable is a back-formation of inflammable to prevent confusion. Why? Because in Latin, the in- prefix has 2 meanings. One, in the “doing at” connotation as in inflammāre. Two, a “not” connotation as in for example infīnītus (where we get infinite), aka not fīnītus (finite).
Finally, nonflammable is simply an English compound from flammable, using the prefix non which means not. So, not flammable (or not inflammable, whatever floats your boat).
“*Inflammable* means *flammable?* What a country!”
“‘Inflammable’ means ‘flammable!?’ What a country!”
“Flammable! Or inflammable…can’t remember which. Doesn’t matter!” – Mordin, Mass Effect 2
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