-gate [Re: Random Note for 2014 WOTY: #2]

[Christopher Philippo]

At 1/10/2014 09:15 AM, David Barnhart wrote: “Spotted on the NPR news site: bridgegate”

Why do people who work in the so-called “news” business do that?  What does it add or accomplish?

“The -GATE construction' - Barry from Pinckney, Mich. says he is tired of hearing of all of the -gate words being created in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. Examples include: Monica-gate, Zipper-gate, Campaign-gate, File-gate, ad nauseam. Canadians had Pepper-gate.' (Sent via cellular phone through David Newman's Show on WJR in Detroit.). ‘We have long since achieved over-use-gate,’ says Michele Utterson of Drummond Island."
“Banished Words 1999.” Lake Superior State University. http://www.lssu.edu/banished/archive/1999.php

Christopher K. Philippo

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