— inflammability, inflammableness , n. — inflammably , adv.
/in flam"euh beuhl/ , adj.
1. capable of being set on fire; combustible; flammable.
2. easily aroused or excited, as to passion or anger; irascible: an inflammable disposition.
n.
3. something inflammable.
[ 1595-1605; inflammabilis, equiv. to L inflamma ( re ) to INFLAME + -bilis -BLE ]
Syn. 2. fiery, volatile, choleric.
Usage . INFLAMMABLE and FLAMMABLE both mean "combustible." INFLAMMABLE is the older by about 200 years. FLAMMABLE now has certain technical uses, particularly as a warning on vehicles carrying combustible materials, because of a belief that some might interpret the intensive prefix IN- of INFLAMMABLE as a negative prefix and thus think the word means "noncombustible." INFLAMMABLE is the word more usually used in nontechnical and figurative contexts: The speaker ignited the inflammable emotions of the crowd.