Flammable is first recorded in the early 18th century, at least according to OED. Unfortunately the Shorter just lists dates not citations.
Michael Quinion at the World Wide Words Index seems to believe that flammable was actually the earlier form, and the language reverted to its use, but he makes no citation. He may potentially mean that in modern times we reverted to the form flammable which dates to the 19th century and fell into disuse, but I'm not sure. I've already got 2-3 unanswered items I've sent to him, so I doubt he'll answer this, but maybe I'll submit it.
At any rate, it's not a neologism, but an older form in increased usage.
Note that one of the key founding principles of the OED is to be descriptive not proscriptive, recording usage rather than shaping it. So it can be difficult to determine any history of preferred usage via the OED alone, and the really good reference books are like $200US each. I have them in my Amazon wish list in case I ever win the Wish List Shopping Spree, but...
Posts: 720 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I definitely don't think Bush is stupid. However, as he likes to hold up his willful ignorance of the nuances of issues in favor of executive summaries by his aides as a strength, I'm not inclined to consider him well informed.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Interesting that the usage note on the dictionary.com site mentions the word enflame. It appears that no such word exists, at least in English. It was probably a typo.
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jan 1999
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I thought it was inflame myself but wasn't gonna argue with the dictionary. Milgram and all that you know.
I've probably used the two words myself with a nuance that no one else ever cared about or got.
Flammable (A.J. lexicon) means, yeah it'll burn if you toss a match on it maybe if there's enough of it you'll have some excitement.
Inflammable (A.J. lexicon) means that the instant anyone *thinks* of tossing a cigarette butt on it the entire thing will take off in a roaring inferno! Four alarm fire at least.
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Merriam-Webster lists enflame as a variant of inflame. I'll check OED tonight. Too heavy to carry with me. Posts: 720 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Nope. Pat willed this name to someone else quite a while ago.
quote:The point I was trying to make is that there are more reliable things to base a judgement on than the way someone talks, or pronounces or mispronounces words.
Exactly. Different dialect ≠ stupid. People who claim that Bush is stupid because of how he talks need to take a few classes in linguistics.
Posts: 651 | Registered: Aug 2001
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People don't say he's stupid because of his accent. They say he's stupid because he's amazingly uninformed (considering he's the President) and because he says a lot of realy stupid things. Obviously he doesn't intend to, but it makes him sound like an idiot sometimes.
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