Re:The Curious Case of IKEA Vocabulary
by fxtentacle on Saturday September 25, 2021 @06:50AM
(#28652080)
In Germany, we have the children's bed "Gutvik" which, if you pronounce it the German way, sounds like "gut fick" which literally means good fuck.
Or the "Poäng" chair, which sounds like "Po eng" meaning tight on the butt.
Re:The Curious Case of IKEA Vocabulary
by felixr on Saturday September 25, 2021 @07:11AM
(#28652158)
Can confirm that whenever I read/hear Poäng I think "Po eng". Somewhat disappointed that this is not the reasoning behind the name
Re:The Curious Case of IKEA Vocabulary
by omgmajk on Saturday September 25, 2021 @02:25PM
(#28655106)
Poäng is swedish for "point"/"score".
Re:The Curious Case of IKEA Vocabulary
by mongol on Saturday September 25, 2021 @03:21AM
(#28651206)
Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me.
Re:The Curious Case of IKEA Vocabulary
by Cederfjard on Saturday September 25, 2021 @05:52AM
(#28651842)
If you’d like another data point, I’m also Swedish, and if I saw a bedspread/överkast with an Indian name in an otherwise Swedish, ”punny” context, I would 100% think ”oh, because of the caste system”. I find it very unlikely that they would’ve gone for this name without making the connection.
The bit connecting Indira Gandhi to a high/”over” caste is a bit more tenuous to me, I’d just have thought the idea was as simple as caste -> India -> Indian name (Indira), but it’s certainly possible.
Re:The Curious Case of IKEA Vocabulary
by msandin on Saturday September 25, 2021 @03:55AM
(#28651366)
I mean, obviously possible but I suspect that the clumsy translation adds a lot of obtuseness to it. In Swedish it looks straightforward enough that you only need to squint just for a moment when you see "överkast" and "Indira" together and then you get that familiar feeling of "How could I ever miss that?".
Re:The Curious Case of IKEA Vocabulary
by BurningFrog on Saturday September 25, 2021 @08:59AM
(#28652821)
Except the IKEA names have many such "dad joke" names.
Well, she did champion the lower castes, so there's also that.
"Indira" is at this page says an Indian name and also the name of an India-inspired IKEA bedspread. But bedspred in Swedish would be "överkast" which would translate directly as "over throw" but could also be read as "over caste". From a Swedish PoV the Indian caste system looks like a social ranking system and to Swedes one of the most famous (and thus presumably socially high ranking) Indians "just happened" to be named... Indira.