incendiary

Definitions

From the cend variant via incendere 'to set on fire' (in- + candēre). Literally 'fire-starting': an incendiary bomb is built to ignite fires. By metaphor, incendiary words or speeches 'set fire to' a crowd — they inflame conflict.

Why It Means This

Incendiary sits on the fire branch of the root (incendere 'to set ablaze'). The literal military sense — a device made to start fires — came first; the figurative one followed naturally, since inflammatory rhetoric 'lights a fire' in people. Both senses share one image: something built or said to make things burn.

Common Collocations

• 1.incendiary device燃烧装置
• 2.incendiary bomb燃烧弹
• 3.incendiary remarks煽动性言论
• 4.incendiary rhetoric煽动性言辞

Example Sentences

• 1.

  The factory was destroyed by an incendiary device during the war.

• 2.

  His incendiary speech provoked riots across the city.

• 3.

  The article was deliberately incendiary to drive up clicks.