Sign up for The Media Today, CJRâs daily newsletter.
The truck on the highway carrying dangerous chemicals usually carries a notice that its contents are âinflammable.â If the truck were very short, it could just as easily carry a sign that the contents were âflammable.â The words mean the same thing: Please donât throw a lit cigarette into that direction, or boom!
The financial executive who has combined accounts to keep fees low for clients hasnât just âmingledâ the funds; he has âcommingledâ them. Again, they mean the same thing: The money is all mixed together.
English has many of these combinations, where a prefix doesnât change the meaning of a word, only modifies it slightly (think âloosedâ and âunloosedâ and the not-quite-a-word âirregardlessâ). Sometimes thereâs a nuance to be gained, but other times it results only in confusion.
âInflammableâ is probably the best (confusing) example. The âin-â prefix has two mainâand nearly oppositeâfunctions. One is to make a word negative: Add âinâ to âdirectâ and the result, âindirect,â means ânot direct.â The other is to give a word an intensity: Add âin-â to âflame,â and the result, âinflame,â means something more than a mere flame.
But most people think of the âin-â prefix as a negative, especially when attached to a common word, like âdisputable,â âconsequential,ââor âflammableââso it takes a second to remember that âinflammableâ doesnât mean ânot flammable.â And though you might think âinflammableâ was a back formation of âflammable,â itâs the other way around. As Garnerâs Modern American Usage notes, âTraditionally the forms were inflammable and noninflammable; today they are flammable and nonflammable.â For many people, though, itâs too hard to parse what looks to be a double prefix, ânonâ and âinâ with âflammable, come up with ânot not flammable,â and realize that means this thing burns. Hence âflammableâ was born. (A similar dislogic has been discussed here with âdisembark.â And yes, we made up the word âdislogic.â)
But not everyone has quenched the fire. News reports often talk of things that are fireproof, but use âinflammable.â And childrenâs sleepwear has to meet âflammabilityâ standards (pdf), which call for the pjâs to not be âflammableâ at allâthey must be âflame resistant and self-extinguishâ if exposed to fire. So why not make them ânonflammabilityâ standards, so people wont think the standards are how easily those clothes burn? The ânon-â prefix is almost always a negative.
The âco-â prefix is another brain-twister. Usually it means something like âshared,â as in âco-author,â or in âcoeducational,â shortened in American English to âco-edâ or âcoed,â meaning a female whoâs attending a school where the sexes are mixed. The definition of âcommingleâ shows the dislogic of âcommingle,â since it means âto mingle together,â even though âmingledâ things already are together.
Though âcommingleâ goes back to Shakespeareâs time, today it is used almost exclusively in financial contexts. And the âmmâ spelling has trumped the older spelling, âcomingle.â
As for âloosedâ and unloosed,â the dislogic is similar to that of âinflammable,â in that âun-â usually means ânot,â causing momentary confusion unless the context is clear. âUnloose,â though, goes back to the 1300s; âlooseâ is about a hundred years older, so that oneâs here to stay. And please, donât confuse âlooseâ with âlose,â or weâll set the dogs on you.
Has America ever needed a media defender more than now? Help us by joining CJR today.