-gate

[Laurence Horn]

On Jan 10, 2014, at 1:27 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 1/10/2014 12:24 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>> 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.
>
> Will we soon have another Gate-gate, for the
> scandalous way in which the former Secretary of
> Defense has dissed the present VPOTUS?

Reminiscent of two of my fave combo-gates, Underwatergate (the blowing up of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior by, as it turned out, agents of the French government) and Pearlygate (one or maybe more of the televangelist brouhahas).  I may be missing a couple…oh, right, Whitewatergate.  Love those overlaps.

LH

>
> In Sept. 2012 there was "Class wars: 'Gate-gate'
> scandal swamps UK PM David Cameron" --
> http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/25/14089601-class-wars-gate-gate-scandal-swamps-uk-pm-david-cameron?lite
> (This story, about a "high ranking senior member
> of the British government", the "Government Chief
> Whip", who was refused permission to ride his
> bicycle through the gate in front of 10 Downing
> St. and lost his cool, uses both the F-word and "pleb.")
>
> Joel
>
>
>> DanG
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 11:52 AM, Christopher Philippo <toff at mac.com> wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > 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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>> >
>>
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>
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