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| Originally Posted by Juz How come flammable and inflammable mean the same thing? |
Because inflammable is based on the verb to enflame which then was Johnsonised to inflame giving the nonsense we now have.
The finest example of Johnsonism is Admiral. "Obviously" this name for a Naval leader had a Classical Latin root from the same source as 'to admire'. Actually the D is totally spurious. It's Barbary coast Arabic: Amir Al. German still retains the 'proper' spelling.
Dr. Samuel Johnson 1709 1784. The man who reformed English spelling.