Preface
Eating Potato Chips
Have you ever noticed that you can't look up just one word? It's like eating potato chips. You can never eat just one. Before you catch yourself, your eye spies another word whose meaning you  want to know, and that entices you to look up that one, too. This neverending process is called enriching your mind.

This book will help you by adding to your vocabulary. It will encourage you to use words correctly and confidently, as dynamic tools that explain or persuade.
Whether English is your native language or your second language, your constant use of this book will accomplish several things: It will stimulate you to become interested in the meanings and  origins of words, introduce you to new ideas and concepts, acquaint you with the fun and mystery of mythology and history, and add to the sum of your knowledge. 
The Athenian playwright Aristophanes (c. 450385 BC) wrote that "by words, the mind is excited and the spirit elated."Much more recently, H. G. Wells, author of The Time Machine and other  futuristic novels, wrote that "human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe" (The Outline of History, 1920).
The Ultimate Tools
Words can work magic. Despite generals, wars are not won on the battlefield. Eventually, all sides have to sit