MIten flammable ja inflammable voivat tarkoittaa samaa asiaa?

Joku vanhan englannin jäänne.

Varmaan suunnilleen samasta syystä kuin kuusi ja kuusi ovat kaksi eri asiaa tietyissä yhteyksissä. 

"Inflammable and flammable are synonyms and mean "able to burn" even though they look like opposites. In this case, rather than the prefix in- meaning "not," as it often does, "inflammable" comes from the latin verb inflammare, which means "to cause to catch fire." "Flammable" was coined later from a translation of the latin verb flammare ("to catch fire"), which inflammare is related to."

Englanti on kieli jossa riittää oikkuja.

Esim. horrible ja horrific viittaa molemmat samaan suuntaan, sitten taas terrible ja terrific täysin eri suuntiin keskenään. 

competent - incompetent

ternal - internal

side - inside

portant - important vrt potent - impotent

Flammable and inflammable do not mean the same thing. If something is flammable it means it can be set fire to, such as a piece of wood. However, inflammable means that a substance is capabble of bursting into flames without the need for any ignition. ... The opposite of both words is non-flammable.