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.
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.
Brother!
Massachusetts too!
You guys are nuts! It’s a water fountain.
Welcome to RI
We have grindahs and cabinets too
Wisconsimians do as well. FTP, ope.
Yes, but the ending syllable is -ah, in place of -er.
I don’t, but some people do
Wait…I had no idea this was a proprietary eponym situation! I love those. Thank you.
Bubblah. The one and only for fresh watah.
>everyone looked at me like a confused dog.
we call this "The Tucker Carlson".
Unless it’s a double bubbler.
He's Ausralian, he'll pronounce it right.
I didn't either! But as a Rhode Islander who grew up in Massachusetts, i also have always called them bubblers.
Cabinets is a New England thing?
Yes, it's true.
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.
Same. Tupperware!
Yea we do the same thing, 'bubblah'
Just searched it up, seems like it. We call those milkshakes.
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.
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
Yup I do
We call them bubblahs.
Thank god. So it's just that pocket of savages in the great lakes region who say it wrong. They love their R's.
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.
Wait what??? This is from a brand name? Lifelong Rhode Islander here and had no idea this is why we say it!
DID WE JUST BECOME BEST FRIENDS?!
Just a RI thing. Grew up in mass, we called them frappes or milkshakes.
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.
Wait so you're telling me they actually pronounce the r?? You're right, maybe they are savages...
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???
My grandfather said a cabinet has ice cream in it, a milkshake is just milk and syrup. He said a lot of things though
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!!
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.
No one actually calls them cabinets. Unless you’re like 85.
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.
Hey Brits - no laughing at the natives!
Same thing happened to me but in college in Maryland.
I thought the brand name thing was an old wives tale.
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!
Ok does cabinet have a meaning other than furniture and presidential admin??
I have never in my life heard of a frappe or milkshake being called a cabinet! Wow
Clementine’s sells cabinets!
You capture the accent well!
Central mass reps the Bubblah too
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.
Maybe, i think Chicago and Elkay have water fountains listed as bubblers in thier catalog
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 call a bubbler a bubbler.
Water fountain??? Like in a fancy park?????
That’s awful. Awful, I say
Yes. A frappe or milkshake. :)
It's not. That's an incorrect urban legend.
It is not a brand name. Incorrect urban legend.
That's incorrect. It was never a brand name.
It is not a brand name. The other poster is wrong.
The origin of the name is a mystery.
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’d like some proof that Bubbler was a brand name. Reasonable google search indicates that this is absolutely not true.
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.
Children can call them
whatever they choose to call them
Us old guys have just had to experience (endure)
Way more than you know
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 always thought the culprit was the ice cream -
that was kept in the freezer cabinet-
UR being AwfullyAwful to my girlfriend who is 60 -
She calls them cabinets too
But
She doesn't drink them anymore -
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.
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 🤷🏼
I went digging and looks like i was half wrong!
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!
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!
Yup. It's common in Northeast US to cal them Bubblers.
Neither do the rest of Rhode Islanders 😂
I got what you did there. I like it!
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!
Never heard bubbler ( bubblahh ) until I moved to RI as a kid (khed)
Yes, East cost , we say bubbler.
We call it a bubbler (bubbla) in Massachusetts also.
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/