Inflammable means flammable? What a country!
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Inflammable has one meaning.
There is a transitive verb "to inflame", which is common. It derives from the noun "flame" and the prefix "in-", which when applied to nouns makes it a verb meaning "to cause [the noun]".
They also ignored the common word "inflammation", which nobody thinks means "to stop your tissues from flaring up".
None of that matters. People parsed "inflammable" differently and arrived at a new meaning. But I just find it odd that, while doing that parsing, they never considered that they never use the verb "to flame" in ordinary speech.
Whereas wood or fabric could be flammable or nonflammable depending on how it's coated or treated.
Noninflammable for the maniacs.
It's always amusing all the gotchas that exist in English. I'm glad I grew up in it rather than trying to learn it as a second language.
In this case, the "in" prefix means "in/on". Think of it as "inflame" + "able". Similar to how "inflammation" doesn't mean "a state of not burning" and "inflamed" doesn't mean "not burning". Also see "ingress", "ingest", "inaugurate".
I'm only an armchair etymologist and this is wild speculation, but I think that the meaning of the "in" prefix might depend on whether we get the word directly from Latin, or whether it comes through French.
French has both meanings: the negation as in interdit (forbidden) or impossible (well, impossible); or “in”, “towards”, “change” as in intérieur (interior), inflexion (inflection), or indeed inflammable (from the Latin inflammabilis).
Both meanings also exist in Latin.
What I found fascinating learning English is “inhabit”, which also sounds like the opposite of its actual meaning. Is obviously the second meaning, but then the prefix is redundant because it came from the Latin habitare, which is the verb with the same meaning.
Anyway, that was today’s minute on etymology.
Speaking of former Soviet treasures, "hot4words" taught me why the "in" needed to be there. Etymologically speaking, that is.
How time flies
The last episode Ive watched of the Simpsons was S13E11, aired in 2002. So it's been a while
(It was so stupid I realized they had long jumped the shark.)