Mental Floss

LINGUISTICS

Eminem is known for his lyrics.

Which musicians are a language learner‘s best friend?

Shrink might be offensive to some.

The slang term for our mental health professionals has a rather grim history.

It’s time to brush up on your vocabulary.

My gyro

If you ask for a “jye-roh” in Greece, prepare to get some funny looks.

If you see a knight wearing a gauntlet, pray he keeps it on.

A knight throwing down his glove in Medieval Europe meant serious business.

A canary in the UK in 1970.

Any early warning sign can be a canary in a coal mine. But the original meaning was more specific.

Here are some word endings that have become productive to varying degrees.

View of Rio de Janeiro at dusk

Latin isn’t widely spoken in Latin America, so why is it called that?

Besides Connections, The New York Times has The Crossword and The Mini Crossword.

Learn which Connections puzzles had players searching for hints most often in 2024.

Where did this weather-related idiom come from?

Where did this curious expression come from, and what’s so right about rain, anyway?

“Gaslighting“ is the most commonly searched term in the U.S.

If you’ve ever looked up the definition of “gaslighting,” you’re not alone.

A wooden tablet covered in still-undeciphered Rongorongo script.

Without a Rosetta Stone for these centuries-old writing systems, the meaning of the texts may never be known.

Is your bread presliced, your oven preheated, and your car pre-owned?

The prefix ‘pre-’ often seems redundant—but it’s actually working hard to serve its purpose.

Find out which languages people in the U.S. care about learning the most.

Thinking about learning a new language? Here‘s a look at the most popular choices in the U.S. right now.

Some people have the worst luck.

If you’ve ever been jinxed into owing someone a soda, you should know why.

Be honest—how many words did you already know?

Are all these new slang terms confusing you? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Thaw-breakers.

From phrasal verbs to loanwords, here's how English speakers repeat themselves without realizing it.

Welcome to the dictionary, beach reads.

Here are some highlights from Merriam-Webster’s latest slate of additions.

Grab your magnifying glass.

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

Jack-o'-lanterns on a front porch.

The first jack-o'-lanterns were made with turnips, not pumpkins.

The witching hour ... or one of them.

From ‘skeletons in the closet’ to ‘graveyard shift,’ here’s how five eerie idioms came to be.

The bookworm in their native habitat.

‘Bookworm,’ which now implies someone is well-read, once meant that you were a total loser.

These things are pretty weird when you think about them.

From polite offers to emphatic exclamations, English speakers have cleverly twisted negative expressions to mean something rather different.

Bees have given us lots of idioms.

Making a beeline for the buffet table? You’re buying into some bee stereotypes.