Benquo comments on The Argument from Common Usage - Less Wrong

29 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 13 February 2008 04:24PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (22)

Sort By: Old

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Benquo 14 February 2008 05:49:35AM 3 points [-]

Mr. Rosser,

AFAIK, "flammable" is a shortening of "inflammable," which confused some people -- they thought the "in-" part was a prefix of negation. Consequently, some people might have employed insufficient caution around large fuel containers marked "inflammable." Most people seem to more easily understand "flammable" as meaning burnable, by analogy with "flame," than "inflammable" by analogy with "to inflame."