The ability to speak well is something that will enhance your professional career, help you feel at ease in social situations, and give you the confidence you need when called on to make last-minute presentations or an important speech at a conference. You can improve your speaking style by improving your delivery – your tone, your speed, and your inflection – and by taking every opportunity to practice speaking in public, whether it’s by taking the initiative to start a conversation with a stranger or by volunteering to give the department summary at your next management meeting. Of course, you’ll also need an excellent vocabulary to give substance to your speech, so learning as many words as possible is an important first step.

The word express has many different meanings, though only one etymology: it comes from the Latin roots ex- (“out”) and pressare (“to press”). The phrase to express yourself means to communicate your thoughts and feelings; metaphorically, you are “pressing” the words and emotions from inside your head and heart out through your mouth. You might also have heard the phrase words cannot express how happy I am or something similar. In this case, the emotions are impossible to describe in words: they are inexpressible.

When used as an adjective, express means “clearly stated, specific, explicit.”

Example: It was my father’s express wish that I inherit his business, but because he’d only written this in a letter to me and had not changed his will before he died, my brother became the new CEO.

Express can also mean “quick and/or non-stop,” often referring to mail delivery, or trains that only go to certain stations. When talking about trains, you’ll hear it used as a noun, as in “I need to leave early to catch the express to London.” The original sense of the word used in this way was to designate a special messenger who would courier a letter or package directly to the recipient. These days, we use the adjective when talking about any service that’s done quickly, often for an extra charge.

The Italian coffee drink called espresso comes from the same root, and has the meaning of “pressed out” rather than “quick,” though many people confuse the two. Although coffee had been popular in Italy since its arrival from the Middle East in the 1500s, the steam-pressure machine used to make espresso was only invented at the beginning of the 20th century, in Milan. Because it’s concentrated due to the extraction method, espresso has more caffeine by volume than standard drip coffee – and that will certainly get you moving quickly!