Why is every scandal a gate now?

[YellowRubberDuckie]

and don't say because of Watergate. The Watergate is a hotel in Washington DC. The gate in watergate means nothing. This media jargon crap is so annoying. It's kind of like anyone who has an addiction is a -holic. Um, an Alcholic is someone addicted to alcohol...not alch. So by the same logic, if you're overworked, you're a workic. Not a workoholic. This crap drives me insane.
Duckie

[Vogon_Glory]

1. This -Gate Stuff Is Boring; Let's Call It Something Else

I think that the "-gate" suffix has been over-used. Let's call the latest imbroglio "Plame-out." It's original, more descriptive, and describes what was done.

Hopefully the "Plame-out" scandal will mean a "flame-out" for the George UU Bush re-election campaign in 2004. :evilgrin:

[Interrobang]

2. The linguistic principles behind it are probably...

...Ease of Articulation and Voguish Affixation, which are actually real linguistic phenomena. It's actually easier to say "workaholic" and so on. Also, since Watergate (and the popularization of "alcoholism," which is fairly new), both -gate and -aholic have become "voguish affixations," ready to be stuck in one piece onto the end of any word at all. (Other examples of voguish affixations include "mini-," "maxi-," and "cyber-.")

[Braden]

3. I don't know. Treason-Gate has a nice ring to it.

[CO Liberal]

4. Actually, It's Because of Watergate

The congressional page scandal during the Late '70s was called "Pagegate", the controversy over the White House Travel Office was "Travelgate", etc. "Gate" became an easily recognizable indication of a scandal or item under investigation, and was widely used by headline writers who are always trying to conserve space.

[ixion]

5. words (suffixes in this case) get created all the time in

Americanized English. This is one of the things that make our version of the English language unique. We don't speak British English, which has a similar quality in that it will borrow from other languages, but most countries are very protective of their languages, and don't allow for words to be made up. Quite the opposite is true with Americanized English. Not only will it borrow from any given language, words can be made up and given context through a process similar to the spreading of a meme. Such is the case with the 'gate' suffix. You can no longer argue that it doesn't have meaning. Initially that was true, but now it means 'scandal', essentially. In Americanized English, these words (suffixes) will start out as part of slang or jargon and will eventually find a home in the dictionary. It's a very common part of the language.

[Minstrel Boy]

6. could be worse:

the "Liberal media" could have dropped the gate-suffix for a Monica-prefix. What would that make this, Monicaleak? :shrug:

But seriously, I agree. It's annoying as hell to have a serious story reduced to a meaningless handle.

[haele]

7. It's the symbology that keeps it going...

a "-gate" is generally used to connotate a cover-up, something that has been "locked away" or placed behind a "gate" for protection.

Was the media persual of Condit considered a "gate"?

And I agree, the suffix -gate is overused. But it's a convienient label that can be used by our short-attention span media theatre.

Haele

[Orangepeel]

8. Because the press thought the word "whitewater-gate" was cute

when republicans made the Clinton's whitewater investment into a "scandal", the press dubbed it "Whitewatergate", because of the "Water".

Then, when they piled on all the other stupid non-issues ("travelgate," "filegate," etc.), they continued to use the "gate" suffix because now people associate it with a political scandal.

I agree; it's dumb.

[SnohoDem]

10. I think it started earlier than that -

Wasn't the flap about Jimmy Carter's brother called, "Billygate"?

Huh - the wonders of Google:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/redbox/story/0,9029,739147,00.html

[wtmusic]

9. Language is created from sounds that are easy to say

and understand, not strict enforcement of rules. Any attempt to impose rules on language will just make you more angry.

[SnohoDem]

12. Even German?

[im4edwards]

11. now ?

I can't recall one since Watergate that has NOT had some sort of "gate" appended to it.

It was the most successful tag line ever created which is why it hangs around and gets more hacknied with each passing one.