View Full Version : Inflammable=flammable  05-10-08, 12:48 PM
The Simpsons did a bit on this in which Dr Nick Riviera
discovers that "inflammable means flammable" with explosive
consequences.  It is curious those words mean the same thing
rather than the opposite as in "credible"and "incredible".
05-10-08, 01:11 PM like ravel and unravel, restive and restless?
:)  Fraggle Rocker 05-10-08, 02:26 PM "Flammable" was created
recently--AFAIK in the USA during my lifetime. The proper word,
"inflammable," comes from "inflame." It's what should be an
obvious derivation meaning "capable of being inflamed." For
years, gasoline tankers plied the highways of the United States,
bearing the colorful, well-known emblems of petroleum companies
--some of the country's most famous corporations such as Shell,
Standard, Mobil, Phillips and Union Oil--and marked with letters
as tall as people warning INFLAMMABLE. For years the nation was
safe from spurious "inflammation" of these valuable cargoes at
the hands of inattentive onloo