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[-] Orangenkuchen@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Redminds of the German "umfahren" (run over) which is the exact opposit of "umfahren" (drive around). (First is pronounced with a tiny pause after the second letter; the other is not.)

[-] Tacky4092@feddit.org 9 points 5 hours ago

You are able to undo the locking. It's almost like reading comprehension is shit nowadays.

[-] MyVeryRealName@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

Why can it not mean unable to be locked?

[-] weps@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

could be both

maybe it's a homonym

[-] MyVeryRealName@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

I'm pretty sure one of those has a hyphen

[-] _skj@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Depends on emphasis. Said with normal stress on the first syllable is "able to be unlocked".

But if you pronounce it with extra emphasis on both of the first two syllables with a bit of a pause between, I think most people would think "not able to be locked". Very context dependent though

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago

Highly illockable

[-] Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 14 hours ago

At the end, both are the same.

You end up with something that isn't locked.

[-] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 10 hours ago

I want my front door to be unlock-able, I don't want it to be un-lockable.

[-] MyVeryRealName@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

The first one isn't locked unless you unlock it.

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 12 points 17 hours ago
[-] 5ibelius9insterberg@feddit.org 19 points 19 hours ago

Let me present to you a genre-classic from Germany:

umFAHREN -> to drive around something or somebody.

UMfahren -> to drive against something or somebody in a way it/they fall over.

[-] Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 hours ago

It is the same in Dutch: omvaren can mean both sailing around and sailing over.

[-] unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 6 points 15 hours ago

I would never use that word in either context, neither one is coherent. I would say, Picard, where is Beverly Crusher! She must shackle me, before I am overcome!

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 53 points 1 day ago
[-] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 day ago

You keep saying that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

[-] Catoblepas 44 points 1 day ago

Unlock-able versus un-lockable

[-] Equinox1289@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 day ago

That's mental bracketing for you.

[-] Catoblepas 10 points 1 day ago

TIL the thing I do when I’m trying to understand an ambiguous sentence has a name

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago
[-] Gork@sopuli.xyz 8 points 23 hours ago
[-] troglodytis@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

Is that ass on lock for being unlockable, or is that lock ass for being unlockable?

[-] Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

Both. It is already been locked and therefore cannot be "locked"; simultaneously because it is locked, it is able to be unlocked.

[-] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 33 points 1 day ago

Ahh, I've been speaking english for over a decade, and I still sometimes get caught up with these and say the opposite thing of what I want

Like the whole thing of flammable and inflammable meaning the same thing.. just why?

[-] Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago

Also "off" meaning both off and on

The alarm went off (the alarm started) The light went off (the light suddenly stopped producing light)

[-] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Went off really just means everything :3. "Wow you really went off on that guy" = yelled at someone, "the milk went off" = spoiled, "we went off on an adventure" = left to travel and so on

[-] Cliff@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I went off my head reading this

[-] folekaule@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

"flammable" actually has an interesting story:

Since 1980s use of the word, especially in safety warnings, has been sometimes discouraged lest it be misunderstood as "non-flammable" through confusion of the two prefixes in-.

Ref: inflammable on Etymonline

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[-] valar@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

Cuz the prefix "in-" can mean both "not" (as in invalid) and "to cause to be" (as in indebted)

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 day ago
[-] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Romantic words were incorporated differently into other languages as the Roman Empire's influence spread. Words like inflammable have more direct Latin roots than words like indebt. So where Inflammable comes directy from the latin inflammo, indebt came from old French and middle English, going from something like endetter and endetten, using the root word dete and dette, but stemming from the root Latin word, debitum. Then en became in at some point.

That's how I understood it anyway through a very short amount of google searching. Anyone feel free to correct me.

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[-] ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

In French you can say ininflammable

[-] Scrollone@feddit.it 1 points 17 hours ago

Also in Italian: infiammabile

[-] Equinox1289@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

Cause the verb is inflame and means to place a flame in on on something, as opposed to not flame. The problem being in both inflammable and the issue the OP of the image is the notion of re-bracketing. Rather than think of it as [inflame]able it gets converted into in[flammable] in the minds of new readers/listeners which flips the in- prefix meaning to not rather than in/on like it is supposed to be.

[-] ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

Should have been enflammable

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[-] devfuuu@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago
[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 3 points 18 hours ago

*None-lockable

[-] chunes@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

For me, personally.. it means able to be unlocked. If I want to say the other thing, I say "it doesn't lock."

[-] DonkeyStar@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

Nothing is unlockable with the right epoxy.

[-] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Or with enough epoxy.

[-] Zgierwoj 7 points 1 day ago

When you say that something is easily unlockable the second way sounds clunky, but both convey the same message that whatever it is, it is not secure

[-] arctanthrope@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

to unambiguously say "unable to be locked" would be "nonlockable"

[-] Rokin@leminal.space 4 points 1 day ago

Nice shower thought.

[-] bitteroldcoot@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

It means it gives the illusion of being locked, until an Israeli tech company plugs into it and unlocks it for the cops.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-tech-company-says-it-can-break-into-all-iphones-ever-made-some-androids/

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

/showerthoughts, no?

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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2026
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