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

[Dan Goncharoff]

News media are communicating to people who often are not paying full
attention. The -gate suffix creates a single word describing a scandal.
When you hear it, or even half hear it, you know what is being talked or
written about. It leads to efficient communication. Aesthetically one may
hate it, but it is hard to argue with its effectiveness.

DanG


On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 11:17 AM, Christopher Philippo <toff at mac.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Christopher Philippo <toff at MAC.COM>
> Subject:      -gate [Re: Random Note for 2014 WOTY: #2]
>
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>
> 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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