Wisconsin slang: regional words, sayings, and how locals talk.
This page collects regional vocabulary from Wisconsin: slang you'll hear in conversation, sayings that travel through families, and pronunciations that mark a person as a local. Pick a city to narrow the list, or keep "All cities" to see the full Wisconsin picture.
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An ATM (Wisconsin).
A classic Wisconsin institution: brandy old-fashioned, relish tray, surf and turf.
A denser, eggier soft-serve ice cream (Wisconsin specialty).
Wisconsin: a traffic signal / stoplight.
Minnesota affirmative: 'absolutely, you can count on it.'
Upper Midwest sentence-tag: 'you know.'
Chocolate-coated honeycomb toffee with a brittle, airy interior, a Buffalo specialty.
Wisconsin's brandy-not-whiskey take on the old fashioned, often 'sweet' with 7-Up.
Fast Canadian low that crashes temps overnight.
The deadly November gales on the Great Lakes.
Wisconsin's Upper Midwest English carries strong German and Scandinavian roots and a vocabulary all its own. A drinking fountain is a "bubbler", traffic lights are "stop-and-go lights", a hearty kettle stew is "booyah", and "up nort" is where you go for the weekend. "Ope" and "uff da" fill the gaps in conversation, a "brat" (bratwurst) is grilled at every tailgate, and Friday means a "fish fry". Soft drinks can be "soda" or "pop" depending on the corner of the state.
Wisconsin slang includes "bubbler" (a drinking fountain), "stop-and-go lights" (traffic lights), "booyah" (a thick stew), "up nort" (the northern lake country), "ope", and the Friday "fish fry". German and Scandinavian heritage runs through it.
In Wisconsin (and, separately, eastern Massachusetts) a "bubbler" is a drinking fountain — "get a drink at the bubbler". Most of the country says "water fountain".
"Booyah" is a thick meat-and-vegetable stew cooked in huge kettles for crowds, a tradition of northeastern Wisconsin and the Green Bay area — the word names both the dish and the communal event.
