I realized that “Mensa” didn’t contain enough numerals to be a phone number, and knew it must be understood that any future member would be able to figure out the next two digits in the sequence. I tried dialling MENSANE, MENSAIL, MENSAFE, and MENSAAB, but got three rebuffs and a fax tone.
From “How I Joined MENSA” by Steve Martin
In Spanish, mensa means stupid. You’d think geniuses would’ve chosen a better acronym
Blame the Romans.
Both words are derived from late Latin mentalis, from Latin mens, ment- ‘mind’.