Flammable and inflammable

[David A. Daniel]

When I was a kid in the 60's fuel trucks all had inflammable written on
them. I distinctly remember being behind one of these one day and my mother
having a bit of a rant saying this was confusing to the great unwashed who
thought that it meant not-flammable, and so there was a movement afoot
whereby we would all have to dumb down and start calling it flammable. She
thought this was just terrible that the educated would have to stoop to
appeasing the hoi polloi. But there you go. There was a gradual, purposeful
shift and now I don't know for sure but I suspect that you will not see
inflammable in public-warning use in the US, unless some truck has gone
unpainted since the 60's. (BTW, stuff that wouldn't burn at the time was
noninflammable)
DAD

Poster:       Michael Quinion <michael.quinion at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG>
Organization: World Wide Words
Subject:      Flammable and inflammable
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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.

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

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