The National Fire Safety Council turns 22 years old today. Created with a mission to promote fire prevention, the council follows in the footsteps of the National Fire Protection Association, which was established in 1896. In addition to educating Americans about fire safety, the older organization has an unusual claim to fame: it is credited with helping popularize the word flammable.

For centuries, folks used inflammable to describe something capable of being easily ignited and of burning quickly. Then, in the 1920s, the National Fire Protection Association became concerned that the public might confuse inflammable with nonflammable. We don't have any evidence that such a mix-up ever occurred, but in the interest of safety, the NFPA spearheaded an effort to replace the suspect term with the unambiguously incendiary flammable. Other people interested in fire safety followed suit, and it was then that flammable (a Latin-based term dating back only to 1813) really caught fire.

But inflammable didn't die out, nor did it take on a different meaning. The far older word—inflammable goes back to the early 1600s—retained its place in the language and became the preferred choice when a meaning is figurative and not literal.

Thank you, gilly! You know, that interchange of the two terms bothered me for years! I actually used to see gas tanker trucks on the highway with BOTH words on the back of tank and I found it humourous. Hadn't thought of it for years, but thanks!