Definition Essay: What Is Inflammable?

The word inflammable is a word commonly used wrong in society, since it has been confusing for years. Inflammable has been dated back to 1652, being used in Medieval Latin. The word comes from the latin word inflammare (www.dictionary.com). Merriam-Webster says that the word inflammable means easily inflamed, excited or angered. Inflammable should mean to easily catch fire, or become angered. Inflammable can be used for a product that can easily catch fire, even though it is most often put on labels as flammable to avoid confusion. Also when someone says they are inflamed, they usually don’t mean that they are excited. Inflammable and flammable are commonly mistaken in society today. Most people believe that they are opposites, but they are nearly the same thing. The reason for the confusion is because the in- in inflammable is confused with the negative prefix in-. The in- used in inflammable is derived from the latin prefix en- which mean to cause. In the Simpsons by Matt Groening Season 12 Episode 18, “Trilogy of Error”, Dr. Nick confusses inflammable thinking that it means non-flammable, and then accidentally sets his clinic on fire. While this is just a cartoon, an event like this could cause tons of damage and could possible severely injure or kill someone in real life. The cartoon shows the confusion between …show more content…
The boy with the hairspray is telling the other boy that the hairspray will not catch on fire because the container says that it is “inflammable”. While the boys think that the hairspray will not catch on fire, the hairspray will immediately catch on fire once the match touches the hairspray. Similar to the Simpsons, the boys could seriously injure themselves or start a fire. To avoid confusion, most canisters have switched to a label saying “flammable” in case the user doesn't know what inflammable