DCHP-2

bowser Bowser DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. & adj. — rare, Automotive

  a type of pump widely used for refuelling, but also for dispensing other liquids (see Image 1)

  Type: 2. Preservation — This term for 'gas pump' was named after its inventor, Sylvanus F. Bowser, an American entrepreneur from Fort Wayne, Indiana, who invented the bowser in 1885. It was first called the Bowser pump, which was eventually shortened to bowser. According to Kaszynski (2000:46), the entrepreneur "modified a water pump into a 'self-measuring gasoline tank' that pumped fuel from a barrel." This background suggests that the term bowser is today a preservation from an American term that spread into Canadian English in the early 1900s. One of the first attested uses in Canada appears in the 1910s in a newspaper advertisement (see the 1916 quotation), which coincides with the first burst of Canadians purchasing automobiles. As the Canadian Encyclopedia states, "[m]otor vehicle registration figures appear for the first time in The Canada Year Book for 1916-17", thus increasing the need for gasoline and gas pumps and causing terminology related to automobiles and gas pumps to become more common.
  The term is of limited frequency in Canada (see Chart 1), yet it occurs more frequently here than in the US. Only the Antipodes (.au and .nz) can somewhat match the 2.0 index points in the .ca domain. Gas pump is by far the most frequent term in Canadian English (see Chart 2). Chart 2 is an attempt to measure the phrases used for 'filling up a car's tank'. As can be seen, the US uses at the pump more frequently than gas pump, a ratio that is inverse in Canada, where that term has pushed back bowser, which remains as a minority term.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "bowser", which is marked "Brit., Cdn (Nfld), Austral., & NZ", and OED-3, s.v. "bowser", which is marked "chiefly Austral. and N.Z", AND, s.v. "bowser" (n.) and NZDE, s.v. "bowser" (n.).

  • Note that no evidence could be found for the Newfoundland dimension of the term suggested in COD-2.