Inflammable came to English from Medieval Latin around 1600 and meant exactly what it means in English—well, until native English speakers decided to chop off the “in” in the word to have “flammable.” Interestingly, Latin-based languages like French still use “inflammable” to mean “capable of catching fire.” In Canada where government regulation requires combustible materials to be labeled in both English and French, the English warning often reads “flammable” while the French warning reads “inflammable” on the same combustible material! Now, that’s REALLY combustible! Find out more about words with similar meanings in Prof. Farooq Kperogis grammar column.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 06:47:06 +0000
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