主题：【讨论】flammable and inflammable

原文由 poorlittle 发表:
I see, 忽悠 is 似是而非, 模棱两可, ambiguous; the superficial or literal meaning of a word is not its implied meaning. 

Thanks.

In high school, my teacher gave me a list of ambiguous words, such as inflammable, inflatable, the difference of “billion” in American English (=million millions) and British English (=thousand millions) etc., but unfortunately I lost that list.  Anyone has such similar list?

sir, I do not know why the word "inflatable" is ambiguous?
And, I think there should be no ambiguous word in number, especially for economic case. So concerning on the billion,"The result of all this is widespread confusion. Anyone who uses the words "billion" and "trillion" internationally should make clear which meaning of those words is intended."

See the next paste

在美国one billion is one thousand millions (1,000,000,000)，而在墨西哥和欧洲，one billion is one million millions (1,000,000,000,000)。对于one thousand millions，欧洲人用另外一个单词来称呼，叫做milliard——没错，法语就是用milliard的；其实英语里面也有，在Merriam-Webster里面可以查到，只不过我从小到大的英语教材里面都没有这个词。至于欧洲人所说的billion (1012)，美国人叫做trillion（但欧洲人的trillion是1018）。不过这一传统也有所改变：In 1974, the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced that henceforth "billion" would mean 109 and not 1012 in official British reports and statistics.

The English names for large numbers are coined from the Latin names for small numbers n by adding the ending -illion suggested by the name "million." Thus billion and trillion are coined from the Latin prefixes bi- (n = 2) and tri- (n = 3), respectively. In the American system for naming large numbers, the name coined from the Latin number n applies to the number 103n+3. In a system traditional in many European countries, the same name applies to the number 106n.
In particular, a billion is 109 = 1 000 000 000 in the American system and 1012 = 1 000 000 000 000 in the European system. For 109, Europeans say "thousand million" or "milliard."
Although we describe the two systems today as American or European, both systems are actually of French origin. The French physician and mathematician Nicolas Chuquet (1445-1488) apparently coined the words byllion and tryllion and used them to represent 1012 and 1018, respectively, thus establishing what we now think of as the "European" system. However, it was also French mathematicians of the 1600's who used billion and trillion for 109 and 1012, respectively. This usage became common in France and in America, while the original Chuquet nomenclature remained in use in Britain and Germany. The French decided in 1948 to revert to the Chuquet ("European") system, leaving the U.S. as the chief standard bearer for what then became clearly an American system.
In recent years, American usage has eroded the European system, particularly in Britain and to a lesser extent in other countries. This is primarily due to American finance, because Americans insist that $1 000 000 000 be called a billion dollars. In 1974, the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced that henceforth "billion" would mean 109 and not 1012 in official British reports and statistics. The Times of London style guide now defines "billion" as "one thousand million, not a million million."
The result of all this is widespread confusion. Anyone who uses the words "billion" and "trillion" internationally should make clear which meaning of those words is intended. On the Internet, some sites outside the U.S. use the compound designation "milliard/billion" to designate the number 1 000 000 000. In science, the names of large numbers are usually avoided completely by using the appropriate SI prefixes. Thus 109 watts is a gigawatt and 1012 joules is a terajoule. Such terms cannot be mistaken.
There is no real hope of resolving the controversy in favor of either system. Americans are not likely to adopt the European nomenclature, and Europeans will always regard the American system as an imposition. However, it is possible to imagine a solution: junk both Latin-based systems and move to a Greek-based system in which, for n > 3, the Greek number n is used to generate a name for 103n. (The traditional names thousand and million are retained for n = 1 and 2 and the special name gillion, suggested by the SI prefix giga-, is proposed for n = 3.)

see the page

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/large.html

原文由 redanqi 发表:

sir, I do not know why the word "inflatable" is ambiguous?

I forgot, perhaps, it may be easily confused with deflate (a high school student may not sure “inflate” or “deflate” means “becoming smaller”)

原文由 christe 发表:
那么不易燃和不燃应该怎么说呢?

nonflammable

flammable 和 inflammable 是一个意思。
Inflammable的字典解释：Easily ignited and capable of burning rapidly; flammable.

英语里还有很多这样的词，只要记住就行了。像priceless、invaluable,作无价解，即价值高得无法衡量，而不是没有价值的，不值钱的。但是valueless则是指不值钱。

多看，多读，很多词自然就记住了。