Quote:
Originally Posted by 6charlong
And why do “flammable” and “inflammable” mean the same thing? Shouldn’t they be opposites?
|
Nope. The "in" in this case is not a "negative", but has pretty much the same meaning as the English word "in".
"Flammable" is from the Latin verb "flammare", which means "to set on fire".
"Inflammable" is from the closely related, but subtly different, verb, "inflammare", which is "in" + "flammare", meaning "to set a flame to something" - ie, the actual act of lighting a fire.