inflammable (2009-10-29)

Part of Speech: adjective, noun

Pronunciation: [in flam′ə bəl]

Definition: As an adjective inflammable means 1) flammable or 2) easily roused, provoked, or excited. As a noun inflammable means anything flammable.

Usage: The confusion surrounding inflammable and flammable rests solely in the double meaning prefix in. Items used by the public that had a propensity to catch fire easily were marked with safety warnings that they were inflammable making some believe that they were not flammable caused by the misunderstanding that the prefix "in" meant "not". Today grab a bottle of insect repellent, citronella oil, a can of Pam cooking spray or a bed pillow and the warnings all say "flammable" as opposed to "inflammable" effectively eliminating any confusion as to the meaning of the warning.

Suggested Usage: Inflammable is one of those confusing words to a lot of people. The confusion comes from the misunderstanding of the Latin prefix in- which means both "not" (similar to the English un) and "in, into, towards, inside, or on". The negative prefix occurs in words like inappropriate. The intensive prefix (derived from the Latin preposition "in") occurs in words like inflammable and inscription.

Etymology: In the beginning we had inflammable that is based on the Latin inflammare meaning "to kindle" from in- (Latin intensive prefix in) plus flamma (flame). Inflammable is recorded as being used as early as 1605 meaning "able to set alight" where flammable is much newer in the sense that it's usage started around 1813. There is a slight distinction between the origins of inflammable and flammable. Where inflammable comes from the Latin inflammare meaning "to kindle", flammable comes from the Latin flammare meaning "to set on fire".