Originally Posted by
Boston1954
Why do flammable and inflammable mean the same thing??
That is a head scratcher alright. I have been told that inflammable was the original word (related to inflame) but because 'in' often means 'not' (invisible, inescapable, etc) someone decided not to use 'inflammable' on warning signs and made up 'flammable' instead.
Has anyone else heard that? I don't know if it is true or not.
For me though, one if the craziest things about English is not a spelling thing but a pronunciation thing. Why do 'can' and can't' sound almost exactly the same in the middle of a sentence?