Flammable and inflammable

[Michael Quinion]

A questioner to World Wide Words has raised the issue of "flammable" and
"inflammable". As I'm from the wrong side of the Atlantic, it would be a
great help if list members would comment on the assertion in the draft
that "Americans now use 'flammable' widely in non-technical speech and
writing."

Printed works and social media suggest this is so, but appearances may
deceive. The statistics suggest that US speakers actually prefer to use
"flammable" than "inflammable" (the former is much more common in current
newspapers, for example), unlike non-technical usage in Canada, Britain or
Australia.

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Michael Quinion
World Wide Words
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

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