14 Swedish words that conflict with the Ikea products they name

(Image credit: Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

The new Ikea catalog is here, and part of the fun of looking through it is reading out the Swedish product names: EKTORP, TROMSÖ, BJÖRKUDDEN, JONSBO GRYBY… There is a system to Ikea product naming that matches word categories to product categories: occupations for bookcases, Swedish islands for garden furniture, etc. Beyond that, the word for a product will often be a simple description of some aspect of the product. For example, FRAKTA, "to carry," is a bag; HUSET, "house," is a set of dollhouse furniture; DISKA, "to wash dishes," is a dishwashing brush.

There are other names, however, that do not seem to relate to their products in any way. In fact, these 14 Ikea product names almost directly contradict the products they're attached to.

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Arika Okrent is editor-at-large at TheWeek.com and a frequent contributor to Mental Floss. She is the author of In the Land of Invented Languages, a history of the attempt to build a better language. She holds a doctorate in linguistics and a first-level certification in Klingon. Follow her on Twitter.

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