Romney-boated???

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Sun Jan 1 23:59:48 UTC 2012


On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 6:37 PM, David Barnhart wrote:
>
> "Gingrich says he's Romney-boated"   from USA Today about a quarter hour
> ago.  That is built off of "Swift-boated".

Gingrich was responding to question about whether he felt
"swift-boated" by Romney's commercials in Iowa. So, since it followed
an explicit reference to the founding form, I don't think "-boat(ed)"
has achieved the level of Zwickyan libfix a la "-gate".

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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