Bite the wax tadpole

Seeing this made me think of the names of things at IKEA. You know: the shelving is called IVAR, the desk is called NARVIK, and the lampshade is called HEKTO. [1] As a matter of fact, Tino generally calls semi-disposable Swedish furniture by its IKEA given name.

Currently there is not an item at IKEA called Gift, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been, or that there never will be.

On the whole, I think ikea-usa.com would be a lot funnier if there were a link to an English-Swedish online dictionary. You may search for a product by name, but they won't help you find out what it means.

It is entirely possible that not everybody is as curious as I.

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[1] The only one of those words that returned an equivalent in English was hekto, which translates to hectogram, meaning "100 grams." I don't know what that has to do with a lampshade, but there you have it.

before - after