-gate

This is a list of scandals or controversies whose names include a ''-gate'' suffix, by analogy with the Watergate scandal, as well as other incidents to which the suffix has (often facetiously) been applied. This list also includes controversies that are widely referred to with a ''-gate'' suffix, but may be referred to by another more common name (such as the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, known as "Bountygate"). Use of the ''-gate'' suffix has spread beyond American English to many other countries and languages.

Etymology, usage, and history of ''-gate''

The suffix '' -gate'' derives from the Watergate scandal in the United States in the early 1970s, which resulted in the resignation of US President Richard Nixon. The scandal was named after the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., where the burglary giving rise to the scandal took place; the complex itself was named after the "Water Gate" area where symphony orchestra concerts were staged on the Potomac River between 1935 and 1965.

The suffix has become productive as a libfix and is used to embellish a noun or name to suggest the existence of a far-reaching scandal, particularly in politics and government. As a CBC News column noted in 2001, the term may "suggest unethical behaviour and a cover-up".

Such usage has been criticized by some commentators as clichéd and misleading. James Stanyer comments that "revelations are given the 'gate' suffix to add a thin veil of credibility, following 'Watergate', but most bear no resemblance to the painstaking investigation of that particular piece of presidential corruption". Stanyer links the widespread use of ''-gate'' to what the sociologist John Thompson calls "scandal syndrome":

The adoption of ''-gate'' to suggest the existence of a scandal was promoted by William Safire, the conservative ''New York Times'' columnist and former Nixon administration speechwriter. As early as September 1974, he wrote of "Vietgate", a proposed pardon of the Watergate criminals and Vietnam War draft dodgers. Subsequently, he coined numerous ''-gate'' terms, including Billygate, Briefingate, Contragate, Deavergate, Debategate, Doublebillingsgate (of which he later said "My best '-gate'' coinagewas the encapsulation of a minor ... scandal as doublebillingsgate"), Frankiegate, Franklingate, Genschergate, Housegate, Iraqgate, Koreagate, Lancegate, Maggiegate, Nannygate, Raidergate, Scalpgate, Travelgate, Troopergate, and Whitewatergate. The '' New York'' magazine suggested that his aim in doing so was "rehabilitating Nixon by relentlessly tarring his successors with the same rhetorical brush – diminished guilt by association". Safire himself later said to author Eric Alterman that he "may have been seeking to minimize the relative importance of the crimes committed by his former boss with this silliness".

The usage has spread into languages other than English; examples of ''-gate'' being used to refer to local political scandals have been reported from Argentina, Germany, South Korea, Hungary, Greece and the former Yugoslavia. The term is also used in Mandarin Chinese with the suffix ''-mén'' ().

Some commentators have characterized this use of the ''-gate'' suffix as a snowclone. But Geoffrey Pullum, the coiner of the term ''snowclone'', considers that it is only a "lexical word-formation analog". Martha Brockenbrough, the founder of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, said that no one should aspire to write with cliches and that although they do help to get a lot of complicated things across in few words, they are not a good way to get people to keep reading what you're writing.

Similar phenomena

The use of a suffix in this way is not new. ''-mandering'' has long been used as a suffix by a politician's name in analogy with gerrymandering ( "Henry-mandering" was used in 1852). In recent years, the ''-gate'' suffix as a catch-all signifier for scandal has seen some competition from as in "Ballghazi" instead of " Deflategate", or "Bridgeghazi" instead of " Bridgegate". The use of ''-ghazi'' is a play on the investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack, which, despite numerous official investigations into the possibility of government cover-ups, has resulted in no criminal charges or major repercussions for the individuals supposedly involved. ''-ghazi'' may be seen as carrying an ironic or self-effacing connotation in its usage, implying that the event described has the appearance and media coverage of a scandal, but does not actually amount to much in a grander sense.

Like the ''-gate'' suffix, the Italian ' suffix emerged in Italian media from investigations in the 1990s that uncovered a system known as '. The term derives from ', which means ' kickback' (e.g., bribery given for public works contracts), and ', meaning 'city'. Examples of snowclone-like use of ' include ' (a financial scandal) and ' (a 2006 Italian football scandal).

Scandals

These scandals have been given the ''-gate'' suffix.

Arts and entertainment

Journalism and academics

Politics

Sports

Technology

Other

Conspiracy theories

These conspiracy theories have been given the ''-gate'' suffix by both supporters and critics of them.

In popular culture

The suffix has also been commonly used in the context of popular media, including satirical usage by television pundits and viewers of reality shows.

Film and television

Notes

References

External links

*
*
* Campbell, Alex
Turning a scandal into a '-gate'
''BBC News'', May 11, 2013.

{{DEFAULTSORT:-gate scandals and controversies
gate
gate
Gate
Political terminology of the United States
Gate
English suffixes
Lists of words

fr:Gate#En suffixe