Turning a scandal into a '-gate'
It's
40 years since the world became familiar with the word "Watergate", as
televised hearings of the committee investigating Richard Nixon began.
How did the name of an American hotel complex set the standard for
labelling controversies?
Camillagate, Sachsgate, Hackgate, Plebgate.
Editors and social commentators are undeniably fond of a "-gate".
The suffix has become so common that it is increasingly used in parody - an admission that the outrage is tongue-in-check.
But recent media furores such as Andrew Mitchell's Plebgate,
or Gategate, and David Cameron's Horsegate, show the tag is alive and
well as shorthand for scandal.
The original takes its name from the Watergate hotel complex
in Washington DC - scene of the burglary which triggered the cover-up,
the scandal and the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
"What? Take the last four letters of a previous scandal or hotel and add it on to all future scandals?
"That can't be the system."
Posted by Editor
on 00:57.
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