Something that is not divisible is indivisible and something that is not accurate is inaccurate, yet something that is inflammable can be burnt. Why is that? Let’s find out.
The word inflammable [ɪnˈflæməbəl] means:
- Capable of burning
- Easily set on fire
- Easily excited; set off by the slightest excuse; easily enraged or inflamed.
It can also mean the opposite: Incapable of burning; not easily set on fire. It comes from Middle French inflammable, from Medieval Latin īnflammābilis, from Latin īnflammāre (to set on fire), from in- (in, on) & flamma (flame) [source].
A related word, (to) inflame means to set on fire, to kindle, to cause to burn, flame or glow, to put in a state of inflammation, or to produce morbid heat, congestion, or swelling, and something that is inflammable can be inflamed [source].
Other related words include inflammation in English , infiammare (to set fire to, to inflame, stir up or flush sth) in Italian, inflamar (to inflame, catch fire) in Portuguese, and inflamar (to inflame, ignite) in Spanish [source].
The word flammable is a back-formation from inflammable and means capable of burning, easily set of fire, or extremely contentious. The prefix in-/im- is often used like un- and non- to negate the meaning of words, such as unaware and non-abrasive. It doesn’t have this meaning in inflammable, but to avoid confusion, the word flammable was coined [source].
Other words that can be used to indicate that something is not easily set on fire include non-flammable, noninflammable, unflammable, uninflammable, incombustible, non-combustible, not flammable and fireproof [source].
In French and Spanish, something that can be burnt is inflammable, while something that cannot be burnt is ininflammable, and there’s a similar word in Italian: ininfiammabile – a nice pile up of prefixes! [source]
More on inflammable v flammable:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/flammable-or-inflammable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combustibility_and_flammability
