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Why does Wisconsin call it a bubbler?
By Product Expert | Posted in Community, FAQs on Sunday, September 27th, 2020 at 9:55 pm
Bubbler History and Etymology
Several stereotypes come to mind when most people think about the Badger State: a penchant for cheese, religious devotion to the Green Bay Packers, and some unique dialectical choices. Falling into this final category is the widespread use of the the word “bubbler,” in reference to the individual drinking fountains that most of the rest of the English-speaking world refers to as, well, drinking fountains.
It’s nothing new to point out that Wisconsinites use the word “bubbler;” the word was referenced as a “You Know You’re From Milwaukee When…” giveaway in newspapers as far back as the 1960s. But why, exactly, is this term so firmly seared onto Wisconsin tongues?
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It’s not known for certain why Wisconsinites use the word “bubbler” to refer to drinking fountains. The most common theory is that the use of the phrase is the fault of Kohler, a manufacturing company based in Wisconsin.
Kohler materials from 1914 refer to their drinking fountain product using the adjective “bubbling” and “bubbler.” According to Joan Houston Hall, the former chief editor of “The Dictionary of American Regional English,” use of term, “mirrors the marketing area of the Kohler Company of 1918 or so.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that drinking fountains first began appearing in Milwaukee in the late 1880s. They use of the term bubbler first appears in Milwaukee newspapers in 1910, where the fountains are described as “sanitary bubblers,” “fountain bubblers” and “water bubblers.” By the early 1920s, the prefixes were dropped.
Hydrate your body with a bubbler. Hydrate your vehicle with an oil change.
Is the word “bubbler” used outside of Wisconsin?
In what may be a shocking twist, however, Wisconsin isn’t the only place that uses the term “bubbler.” Rhode Island says it too. And so does much of Australia: most of the eastern half of the continent, including Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, along with cities such as Sydney and Canberra also say bubbler.
In the United States, however, the phrase remains most closely associated with Wisconsin. A quote attributed to Ronald Reagan’s labor secretary, Ray Donovan, goes, “If you hear someone call a water fountain a bubbler, you can bet he’s from Milwaukee.”
Another Badger State Mystery: Why does Wisconsin have so many lakes?
