Flammable" versus "Combustible"Inspired by a provocative (in a good way) comment by Fumble. Fingers (above), I did some research into the evolution of the definitions of combustible, flammable, and inflammable in Webster's dictionaries over the past 2. The entries for flammable are a bit spotty—absent from the 1. Collegiate series dictionaries until the Sixth Collegiate (1. I expect that flammable appears in the big New International (1. Second New International (1. Collegiate series, and I find the pared- down listings in the Collegiates a better guide to which words were in widespread, approved use, in the judgment of the Merriam- Webster authorities of the time.) The other two terms are listed in all of the dictionaries I consulted. Combustibility is a measure of how easily a substance will set on fire, through fire or combustion. This is an important property to consider when a substance is used. · This page was last edited on 25 February 2017, at 18:37. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may. Combustible definition, capable of catching fire and burning; inflammable; flammable: Gasoline vapor is highly combustible. See more. Here is a quick summary of how the wording of the relevant definitions has changed over the years: A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1. Combustible,a. that will easily take fire or burn. Inflammable,a. easily set on fire, fiery, hot. An American Dictionary of the English Language (1. Combustible,a. That will take fire and burn; capable of catching fire; thus, wood and coal are combustible bodies. Flammable,a. Capable of being enkindled into flame. Inflammable,a. That may be set on fire; easily enkindled; susceptible of combustion; as inflammable oils or spirits. An American Dictionary of the English Language (1. ![]() ![]() An American Dictionary of the English Language (1. Combustible,a, 1. Capable of taking fire and burning; inflammable. Flammable,a, Capable of being enkindled into flame; inflammable. Obs.]Inflammable,a, Capable of being set on fire; easily enkindled; susceptible of combustion; as inflammable oils or spirits. Webster's International Dictionary 1. Combustible,a, 1. Capable of taking fire and burning; apt to catch fire; inflammable. Flammable,a, Inflammable. Obs.]Inflammable,a, 1. Capable of being easily set on fire; easily enkindled; combustible; as inflammable oils or spirits. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, First Edition (1. Combustible,a, 1. Capable of taking fire and burning; inflammable. Inflammable,a, 1. Combustible Liquid DefinitionA gas detector is a device that detects the presence of gases in an area, often as part of a safety system. This type of equipment is used to detect a gas leak or. In Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (2003), the first definition of combustible is "capable of combustion," the first definition of. Capable of being easily set on fire; combustible. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Second Edition (1. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Third Edition (1. Capable of combustion; inflammable. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Fourth Edition (1. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth Edition (1. Capable of combustion; inflammable; also, easily excited; irascible. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Sixth Edition (1. Capable of being easily ignited; inflammable; —preferred by many technical writers and publications to the older equivalent inflammable because of possible misinterpretation of the prefix in- as negative. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Seventh Edition (1. Capable of combustionflammableadj. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Eighth Edition (1. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Ninth Edition (1. Merriam- Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition (1. Merriam- Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (2. I notice three especially interesting things about these evolving definitions. First, two very early definitions (those from 1. Fumble. Fingers' emphasis on the relatively easy and rapid burning behavior envisaged by inflammable: Whereas combustible is associated with wood and coal, inflammable is associated with oils and spirits. This important difference emerges despite previous definitions (in the 1. Just as important, the "oils or spirits" example remains associated with inflammable through the most of the next century (all the way through the 1. Webster's International dictionary). Second, though the adverb easily persists in the definitions of inflammable of the middle period (from 1. Third, reemphasis of differences between the two terms begins in the Seventh Collegiate (1. The vivid addition to the definition of flammable in the Seventh Collegiate ("capable of being easily ignited and of burning with extreme rapidity") makes the revised definition so much more precise than the Sixth Collegiate's definitions of flammable ("Capable of being easily ignited; inflammable") and of inflammable ("Capable of being easily set on fire; combustible") that I can't help wondering whether the altered definitions of 1. Merriam- Webster's lexicographers were trying to establish a definition of flammable that was consistent with the terminology used by fire prevention authorities, regardless of how contemporaneous nonexpert writers understood the terms combustible, flammable, and inflammable.
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