inflammable

What it means

1. Capable of burning.

   Synonyms: flammable, combustible · Antonyms: nonflammable, noninflammable, unflammable, uninflammable, fireproof, incombustible

2. Easily set on fire.

   1 more example

   On he went a few paces and touched a second, then a third, and a fourth, till at last we were surrounded on all three sides by a great ring of bodies flaring furiously, the material with which they were preserved having rendered them so inflammable that the flames would literally spout out of the ears and mouth in tongues of fire a foot or more in length.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   Synonyms: flammable · Antonyms: nonflammable, noninflammable, unflammable, uninflammable, fireproof, incombustible

3. figurativelyEasily excited; set off by the slightest excuse; easily enraged or inflamed.

   Synonyms: hot-headed, quick to anger · Antonyms: level-headed, unflappable

In a sentence

On he went a few paces and touched a second, then a third, and a fourth, till at last we were surrounded on all three sides by a great ring of bodies flaring furiously, the material with which they were preserved having rendered them so inflammable that the flames would literally spout out of the ears and mouth in tongues of fire a foot or more in length.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

Where it comes from

1. Latinīnflammāre“to set on fire”
2. Medieval Latinīnflammābilis
3. Middle Frenchinflammable
4. Englishinflammable

From Middle French inflammable, from Medieval Latin īnflammābilis, from Latin īnflammāre (“to set on fire”), from in (“in, on”) + flamma (“flame”). By surface analysis, inflame + -able, literally “able to be inflamed”.