inflammable "and" flammable
Both \"flammable\" and \"inflammable\" mean the same thing: easily catchesfire.
The \"in-\" of \"inflammable\" is not the 'negating' prefix as in:
- invisible
- incurable
- impossible
- ... and so on...
But is a prefix from Latin, meaning \"into\", so it's saying that something
can burst INTO flames.
However, because that use of \"in-\" is much less than common than the
'negating \"in-\"' that makes opposite words, the use of \"inflammable\"
is on the decrease because there's a danger that people might think
that it means something CAN'T catch fire, when in fact the truth is
the opposite of that.
Labelling for packages and containers are advised to contain only
\"flammable\" for this reason. No one can force them (yet) to use
only \"flammable\", but it's a sensible idea and eventually \"inflammable\"
will be the less-used word of the two.
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