-gate

[Dan Goncharoff]

The -gate suffix was not used to describe what happened at the Watergate,
so there is an argument to be made that it is not a relevant standard.

The list of sports scandals in wikipedia using the -gate suffix is quite
long; none approach the seriousness of a POTUS scandal. I am sure it makes
life a lot easier for back-page headline writers. And readers.

DanG


On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 11:52 AM, Christopher Philippo <toff at mac.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Christopher Philippo <toff at MAC.COM>
> Subject:      Re: -gate
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jan 10, 2014, at 11:40 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> > $50k fine and made to sit out an entire game by the coach — for
> unsportsmanlike behavior related to shoelaces. The -gate suffix tells us it
> was not treated as a mere prank.
>
> That falls a bit short of what happened in the Watergate scandal.  The
> subhead ”J. R Smith in trouble over shoelace prank against Mavericks” or
> some variation thereon would have sufficed as a headline.  The headline
> “Shoelace-gate might be final straw for JR Smith and the Knicks” had two
> cliches.
>
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