An excellent way to increase the number of words that you know is to read the right kind of books. The careful study of the words used in the speeches and addresses of noted men is good practice. The conditions that called forth the speech were probably important, and the speech itself interesting, or it would not be preserved. When a man has an interesting or important message to give, he usually gives it in clear, exact, simple language. Therefore the vocabulary that he uses is worth copying. As for stories, there is a kind that furnishes a wealth of material that modern authors are constantly using or referring to, and this is found in stories of the Bible, stories of Greek and Northern gods and goddesses, stories of the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Æneid, stories of chivalry—all old stories. Every one should know them well, because they are the basis of many allusions in which a single word oftentimes suggests a whole story. The meaning of the word herculean, for instance, is missed if you do not know the story of Hercules and know that he was famous for his strength.
Exercise 1
Atlas is an interesting word. Originally it was the name of a Greek god, who carried the world on his shoulders. Then it is supposed that in the sixteenth century the famous geographer Mercator prefixed his collection of maps with the picture of Atlas supporting the world. Thus a collection of maps in a volume came to be called an atlas. Consult an unabridged dictionary for the origin of each of the following:
| rival | fortune | cereal | boycott |
| dollar | finance | china | derrick |
| bankrupt | milliner | java | mercury |
| cash | pullman | cashmere | colossal |
| mint | grocer | macadam | turbine |
Exercise 2
The days of the week and the months of the year are interesting in their derivation. Monday, for example, represents the day sacred to the Moon as a deity. Explain the origin of each of the following:
| Sunday | Saturday | May | October |
| Tuesday | January | June | November |
| Wednesday | February | July | December |
| Thursday | March | August | |
| Friday | April | September |
Exercise 3
Look up the derivation of the following:
| cancel | bead | ambition | hospital |
| pecuniary | paper | influence | pavilion |
| cheat | book | virtue | mackintosh |
| speculation | bayonet | peevish | chapel |
| phaëton | tawdry | disaster | omnibus |