Bubbly

How to spell bubbly

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bubbly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bubbly mean?

1. adjectiveFull of bubbles, or by extension lively, cheerful and full of energy.
2. nounAn informal term for champagne or other sparkling wine.

Bubbly in a sentence

• adjective

  The spa pool was warm and bubbly when we arrived.

• noun

  They opened a bottle of bubbly to toast the new house.

• adjective

  Her bubbly manner put every nervous interviewee at ease.

• noun

  The waiter topped up our glasses with chilled bubbly.

Where does bubbly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows out of 'bubble', which appeared in Middle English around the 1300s and is almost certainly imitative in origin, formed to mimic the soft popping sound that little spheres of gas make as they burst on a liquid surface. Similar bubbling words exist across the Germanic languages, including the Dutch 'bobbel' and various Low German forms, all echoing the same noise. The suffix '-y' was added to make the adjective 'bubbly', meaning 'full of bubbles', a use recorded from the early modern period. By the twentieth century the same adjective was being applied to people, describing a lively, effervescent personality by clear analogy with fizzing drink. The informal noun sense, meaning sparkling wine or champagne, is a more recent slangy shortening, and the doubled 'b' that trips some writers simply preserves the spelling of the parent word 'bubble'.

How the word is built

• bubble (from bubble, of imitative origin)
• -y (adjective/noun suffix); note the doubled 'b' carries over from bubble