Submitted by Kryptonthenoblegas t3_yol3mk in RhodeIsland
So I'm Australian and grew up using the word bubbler but when I went to school abroad I copped a lot of (friendly) teasing and confusion since apparently the rest of the world actually call it a water fountain all the time and don't know what bubblers are. I've heard that you guys in Rhode Island call water fountains the same thing though so I was wondering whether that was actually true??
Oh sweet nice to know that some of you guys also use the 'correct' term lol. I didn't know it was from a brand name though, I assumed it's because the water kind of 'bubbles' up.
Wait what??? This is from a brand name? Lifelong Rhode Islander here and had no idea this is why we say it!
Yeah the company that made the Bubbler brand of water fountains was in Wisconsin. So they call them bubblers too. And of course Massachusetts and RI bought them, so we can them bubblers.
I thought the brand name thing was an old wives tale.
Maybe, i think Chicago and Elkay have water fountains listed as bubblers in thier catalog
That's incorrect. It was never a brand name.
I went digging and looks like i was half wrong!
It is not a brand name. The other poster is wrong.
The origin of the name is a mystery.
Wait…I had no idea this was a proprietary eponym situation! I love those. Thank you.
I didn't either! But as a Rhode Islander who grew up in Massachusetts, i also have always called them bubblers.
Same. Tupperware!
It's not. That's an incorrect urban legend.
I’m not sure where you got that from, lazy dictionary, but I did find info regarding a “double bubbler” fountain from WWI and how people came to call water fountains “bubblers” because of it. Maybe it’s a blend of the two? Some people had already called it that, and some came to call it that after the dual-stream water fountain.
We call them bubblahs.
It is not a brand name. Incorrect urban legend.
I’d like some proof that Bubbler was a brand name. Reasonable google search indicates that this is absolutely not true.
I always thought it was strange that it's just us and Wisconsonites who use the term, separated as we are by so many states. Cool to hear it's an Aussie thing too.
Water fountains are those things with statues in public parks. Pretty to look at, but you don't want t to drink from them!
Absolutely true. When I moved to Florida in 8th grade I asked where the “bubbla” (spelling to emphasize accent) and everyone looked at me like a confused dog. But fun fact, the Double Bubbler was invented by Halsey W Taylor after he noticed workers getting dysentery from water fountains in the factory.
>everyone looked at me like a confused dog.
we call this "The Tucker Carlson".
Don’t you insult RI’s Everyman! His parents must’ve worked really hard to pay for his 50K/year schooling here, how else would he have become a hard-working blue collar ordinary man of the people???
I relocated in 2nd grade and it wasn’t any better. The other one that threw me was the use of “Lav” for rest room. I spent the first few months of second grade thinking my elementary school had a laboratory.
Same thing happened to me but in college in Maryland.
Welcome to RI
We have grindahs and cabinets too
No one actually calls them cabinets. Unless you’re like 85.
Children can call them
whatever they choose to call them
Cabinets is a New England thing?
Just searched it up, seems like it. We call those milkshakes.
I’ve never heard anyone under the age of 80 use that term. If you ask the average rhode islander for a cabinet they will probably look at you weird and point to a furniture store.
UR being AwfullyAwful to my girlfriend who is 60 -
She calls them cabinets too
But
She doesn't drink them anymore -
Clementine’s sells cabinets!
Sad as fuck. Last time i was at the creamery i odered one, and they did bring a frappe which was fine, but they also used to bring over the big silver blender thing which they didnt.
I have never in my life heard of a frappe or milkshake being called a cabinet! Wow
We always thought the culprit was the ice cream -
that was kept in the freezer cabinet-
My grandfather said a cabinet has ice cream in it, a milkshake is just milk and syrup. He said a lot of things though
People in MA say this too but replace “cabinet” with “frappe.” Me, from NY, always ordered a milkshake in MA and still got what they call a frappe so 🤷🏼
Us old guys have just had to experience (endure)
Way more than you know
Dunno -
Definitely an RI thing - -
I don't drive more than 8 minutes away so its hard to tell what the rest of NE is doing
Neither do the rest of Rhode Islanders 😂
Ok does cabinet have a meaning other than furniture and presidential admin??
Just a RI thing. Grew up in mass, we called them frappes or milkshakes.
Yes. A frappe or milkshake. :)
Yes, but the ending syllable is -ah, in place of -er.
Yea we do the same thing, 'bubblah'
Thank god. So it's just that pocket of savages in the great lakes region who say it wrong. They love their R's.
Wait so you're telling me they actually pronounce the r?? You're right, maybe they are savages...
It's just one tiny pocket in Minnesota if I'm not mistaken. For the record, they absolutely are. We here in Southern coastal New England are unabashed pricks. They're a bunch of smarmy, spineless, passive aggressive cunts. When you hear about how Americans are fat and uneducated, that's one of the epicenters that skews the statistics.
He's Ausralian, he'll pronounce it right.
Bubblah. The one and only for fresh watah.
DID WE JUST BECOME BEST FRIENDS?!
Massachusetts too!
Yes. A discord server with other Americans in there got confused when I said that
Water fountains are in parks and mall/hotel lobbies
Brother!
We also say “Wicked”! Burrr, it’s wicked freezing out 🥶
I remember the first time I realized water fountains weren't known as bubblers was back in the 80s on a field trip to slater mill I believe it was. I had asked an older couple where the bubbler was? And they responded in a British accent asking what I was asking for? I remember saying you know the thing you press the button to get a drink of water? The husband's response was the oh my, you mean the water fountain! Then laughed at me while pointing to the bubbler with a mocking tone saying g the bubbler is over there.
Hey Brits - no laughing at the natives!
I'm pretty sure he was laughing at the accent also. I could hear my boy voice saying...ya kno...where you press the buttin to get watah!
You capture the accent well!
Yes we say bubbler.
Yes, it's true.
I actually didn't realize Australians called them bubblers also, that's awesome! But yeah, Rhode Island and Wisconsin call them bubblers still, the rest of of the US has no idea what we are talking about lol.
Central mass reps the Bubblah too
Yes! We 100% call it a bubbler in RI. Growing up in RI a water fountain is something with a statue in it that has water spewing out and you drink out of a bubbler. I'm also so excited to find out people in Australia call them bubblers too!!
I call a bubbler a bubbler.
You DO? I thought we were alone in this one! Cheers!
Wisconsimians do as well. FTP, ope.
Some parts of Massachusetts call it that, too.
I KNEW there was something I liked about Australia (apart from Wallabies and Paul Hogan).
Sure do, and its not a liquor store (beer wine liquor all have to be brought at retail store besides breweries etc). It's a package store....a Packy as it was.
I’m a teacher from Massachusetts, and was teaching in a first grade classroom in Arizona. One of the tiny kids asked me if they could go get a water, but the water vending machine they usually use was out of service, so I told them that, and instructed them to just go to the bubbler.
They came back crying a few minutes later because they didn’t know what a “bubbler” was and couldn’t find it.
That was when I realized they are called something different everywhere else.
Yes! Haha I discovered this when I went to Australia and my friend refered to a bubbler and I damn near lost my shit! It was funny as!
Yup. It's common in Northeast US to cal them Bubblers.
Yup I do
Yes. I went to college in Maryland and asked someone where the bubbler was in the dorm and they looked at me like I had 3 heads. That’s how I learned that it’s unusual to call it a bubbler.
When I moved from Connecticut to RI when I was a kid, between bubblers and cabinets (aka milk shake), i was confused.
That’s awful. Awful, I say
I got what you did there. I like it!
Bubbler is used routinely in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, plus some bleed into other New England states like New Hampshire and Maine, etc., and weirdly, Wisconsin.
We also called them bubblers when I lived in Portland Oregon, although just the outdoor ones downtown.
Water fountain??? Like in a fancy park?????
Math class in Midwest I asked about a functions graph. "Does it look like how we draw seagulls?" All heads turned to me.
All people from RI would have understood.
Yes , I’ve called them bubblers my whole life. The water actually projects vertically through the piece which is called a “bubbler”.
Line up for the bubbler!
Milwaukee does too.
Idk what a water fountain is but yes I do know what a bubbler is!
We call drinking water fountains bubblers but a regular water fountain (like a regular decorative fountain) is a water fountain!
New Hampshire too
bubblers always had blue corossive stuff growin off the spout
i drank it anyways
Never heard bubbler ( bubblahh ) until I moved to RI as a kid (khed)
Yes, East cost , we say bubbler.
Water fountain - Found in a park, square, garden, or in front of a building, etc. Used for decoration.
Drinking fountain - For the purpose of drinking water.
Bubbler - Midwestern term (mainly Wisconsin) for drinking fountain.
In Rhode Island, USA. Water Fountain has nothing to do with getting a drink.
Yes, yes we do. Welcome!
We call it a bubbler (bubbla) in Massachusetts also.
I don’t, but some people do
Maybe I am not a real Rhode Islander, but to me:
Water bubbler = the water dispenser with the 5 gallon jugs you invert on top then dispense into a cup from the spout below, which bubbles as you remove water from the tank and it gets replaced with air.
Water fountain = the device you drink straight out of, which is connected to the water main and shoots the water up in an arc, like a fountain.
You guys are nuts! It’s a water fountain.
Unless it’s a double bubbler.
blahinator180 t1_ivemb6d wrote
Yes we do, bubbler is a brand name (like Kleenex or tempo for tissues). Here and southern Wisconsin we call them bubblers.
Edit: EvidentlyI am wrong and just perpetuating a myth. Apparently no one’s knows, though it might have something to do with the bubble valve in the faucet head. Apparently some companies describe the head of a drinking fountain as a bubbler.
As to why we, Wisconsinites, and Australians use the term for a drinking fountain; no one knows. Not that that is going to stop me from using the term, and passing it on to my kids.
https://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/news/local/2014/10/31/sheboygan-history-bubblers/18254395/