Current Events > The word "unnerving" makes no sense.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It describes something that makes you nervous, right? But then it should be called "nerving". Unnerving should mean it is relaxing.

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Unnerving means it wrecks your nerves

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This thread is unnerving

Welcome to English, bitches

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unnerve (third-person singular simple present unnerves, present participle unnerving, simple past and past participle unnerved)
To deprive of nerve

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Nerving is like getting psyched. It's upping your nerve. Unnerving is the opposite of that.
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Inactive: not active.
Insane: not sane.
Inefficient: not efficient.

Inflammable: flammable.

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Sega_System posted...

Inflammable: flammable.

What a country!

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Sega_System posted...

Inactive: not active.
Insane: not sane.
Inefficient: not efficient.

Inflammable: flammable.

Combustible and incombustible are opposites, but flammable and inflammable are synonyms. How can that be? The in- of incombustible is a common prefix meaning "not," but the in- of inflammable is a different prefix. Inflammable, which dates back to 1605, descends from Latin inflammare ("to inflame"), itself from in- (here meaning "in" or "into") plus flammare ("to flame"). Flammable also comes from flammare but didn't enter English until 1813. In the early 20th century, firefighters worried that people might think inflammable meant "not able to catch fire," so they adopted flammable and nonflammable as official safety labels and encouraged their use to prevent confusion. In general use, flammable is now the preferred term for describing things that can catch fire, but inflammable is still occasionally used with that meaning as well.

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ASithLord7 posted...

Combustible and incombustible are opposites, but flammable and inflammable are synonyms. How can that be? The in- of incombustible is a common prefix meaning "not," but the in- of inflammable is a different prefix. Inflammable, which dates back to 1605, descends from Latin inflammare ("to inflame"), itself from in- (here meaning "in" or "into") plus flammare ("to flame"). Flammable also comes from flammare but didn't enter English until 1813. In the early 20th century, firefighters worried that people might think inflammable meant "not able to catch fire," so they adopted flammable and nonflammable as official safety labels and encouraged their use to prevent confusion. In general use, flammable is now the preferred term for describing things that can catch fire, but inflammable is still occasionally used with that meaning as well.

That doesn't explain why it's kept the same meaning for the past 200 years.

If this can happen, I'm sure the prefix on flammable could have its meaning adjusted...



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Denerving

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Sega_System posted...

That doesn't explain why it's kept the same meaning for the past 200 years.

If this can happen, I'm sure the prefix on flammable could have its meaning adjusted...

"Literally" has been used in that informal fashion for 200 years too.

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