this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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Tinsel is highly flammable. Or is it inflammable?
Joke killer:
Flame - fire.
Flammable - has the potential to be set on fire. (eg. burn, ember, catch)
Inflame - to burst into fire.
Inflammable - has the potential to burst into fire. (eg. explode, detonate, erupt)
Non-flammable - cannot result in flame.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Blame the Ancient Greeks for this wonderful bit of English.
Oh, so that's why the doctors had to remove my appendix!
But going back to being serious. My understanding is that the use of the term "flammable" basically only arose as an attempt to remove the ambiguity caused by the "in" prefix in "inflammable". Many organisations now prefer to avoid the term inflammable in favour of flammable for precisely that reason.
[Source]
It's a 400 year time period, you could make just about any valid excuse for the use of either, both have been used together for 200 years, and inflame is older than inflammable by 200 years.
Inflammable means flammable? What a country!
Thanks, Dr Nick!