Word: incendiary (adjective, noun)

Associations

The word "incendiary" is often related to fire or causing strong emotions like anger or excitement.

As an adjective, it means:

• Causing fire or capable of causing fire.
• Tending to stir up conflict or strong feelings.

As a noun, it means:

• A person or thing that causes fires.
• A device or person that causes conflict or violence.

Examples:

• The incendiary bomb started a large fire in the building. (fire-related use)
• His incendiary speech made the crowd very angry. (emotion/conflict use)
• The police arrested an incendiary who was setting fires in the city. (person causing fire)
• The article was incendiary and caused a lot of debate. (causing strong feelings)

Synonym difference:

• "Inflammatory" is a close synonym when talking about causing strong emotions or conflict, but "incendiary" often has a stronger, more violent or dangerous sense.
• When talking about fire, "flammable" means something can catch fire easily, but "incendiary" usually means something designed to start fires.

Substitution

Depending on context, you can replace "incendiary" with:

• For fire: "flammable," "combustible," "fire-starting"
• For emotions/conflict: "inflammatory," "provocative," "agitating"

Changing the word changes the tone:

• "Inflammatory speech" is about causing anger but less about violence.
• "Incendiary device" is specifically made to start fires.

Deconstruction

"Incendiary" comes from Latin:

• Root: "incendere" means "to set on fire"
• Prefix: "in-" means "in" or "on"
• Suffix: "-ary" means "related to" or "connected with"

So, "incendiary" literally means "related to setting fire."

Inquiry

• Can you think of a situation where a speech might be called incendiary? Why?
• Have you ever seen or heard about something incendiary in the news? What was it?
• How would calling someone "incendiary" change the meaning if you mean their personality or their actions?