Ballocks. Inflammable means "will burn easily". http://www.dictionary.com/e/inflammable/ The formerly obscure word "flammable" (practically unknown in my childhood) became promoted by safety experts, because they were concerned that people whose first language was not English might be confused, with disastrous results. People like you, apparently!
And me. I have juggled with the two identical meanings most of my life. One of those (non-)distinctions that would never settle.
Has that any secret meaning we should know about? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I got that I was more in to oops - translated into Russian and then into Arabic - is the name of a camel fart - type of hidden meaning Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I believe "oops" is an abreviation of "whoops." People whooping, e.g. "whoop, whoop, whoop." Similar to, "cheers"; people cheering.
I'd have thought it was born of the surprised expression one usually makes when one makes a mistake. Eyes wide, mouth open, in an 'oo'. If you vocalize this, you get an 'oo' sound. When you realize your mouth is hanging open, you cut off the sound, making an 'oop' sound.
In support of that it is perhaps worth noting that the same expressions exists in French, where they spell it "oups" and it tends, I sense, to have a slightly more serious meaning, denoting a real cockup.
Dunno. The French do say "Et hop!....". I've never come across "Allez houp" though. I'll have to ask my son about that.
It wasn't you telling me about Joseph Conrad a while back ,was it? Anyway I have found an instance of "Allez! Houp!" in his "Tales of Unrest, and Typhoon".... https://books.google.ie/books?id=dh...Ax8Q6AEIXDAJ#v=onepage&q="Allez houp"&f=false Not that I have read him (as I may have said before).