what's the difference?

SierraAR

Community Advocate
Community Support
Messages
827
Reaction score
17
Points
18
flam·ma·ble/ˈflaməbəl/
Adjective:
Easily set on fire.
Synonyms:
inflammable - combustible
 

jensen

Active Member
Messages
1,167
Reaction score
22
Points
38
one can burn easily the other cannot burn easily
 

essellar

Community Advocate
Community Support
Messages
3,295
Reaction score
227
Points
63
one can burn easily the other cannot burn easily

Actually, no. "Inflammable" and "flammable" mean the same thing, reach back to the same roots, but were brought into English independently. "Inflammable" got to us first, and for a very long time "flammable" was viewed as a vulgar (as in "common" or "uneducated" rather than as "nasty") term; a sign of the decline and impending death of English as a civilized language.

The "in" prefix of "inflammable" is from the original French word (and related to the "in" and "im" prefixes indicating "taking in, especially of a quality", as in "imbued" and "imbibe"), and is not related to the negation prefix we borrowed from Latin. Unfortunately, the normal meaning of "in" as a prefix has led to some rather unfortunate misunderstandings (often fatal), so it is more common to see the word "flammable" used in product warnings and so on (whereas "inflammable" was once the much more common word of the two).
 

Sharky

Community Paragon
Community Support
Messages
4,399
Reaction score
94
Points
48
I think my post says it quite succinctly and clearly.
 
Top