WORDS

"Great Scott!" was around long before it became the go-to expression of Doc Brown in ‘Back to the Future.’

So, you’d like to write for Mental Floss? We've assembled a handful of helpful tips to help you craft the best pitch possible.

If you’re struggling to describe the new coronavirus era we’re living in, well, you’re not alone. In fact, many new terms have been coined to help us talk about these unprecedented times.

If you assumed the now-ubiquitous lowercase ‘i’ meant ‘internet,’ you’re not wrong—but that’s only part of it.

The story of March Madness has everything: Chaucer, sex-crazed hares, Alice in Wonderland, lawsuits, and a basketball coach-turned-poet from Illinois.

The head of the society signed off for good, declaring that “The ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!”

The first ALDI locations bore a different name, but the owners had changed it by the time they had brought their grocery stores to the U.S.

Knowing your equines is no mere horseplay. Here's how to tell the difference between horses, ponies, and even miniature horses.

V is the only letter in the English language that makes itself heard no matter which words it appears in.

IKEA, the beloved Swedish home furnishings chain, has a coherent naming strategy that its non-swedophone customers are missing out on.

Based on this essay, Guy Beringer—the father of brunch—almost definitely would have approved of those bottomless mimosas.

The Romantic poets' verse was beautiful and inspired—and so were their insults, though not in the same way.