derdoktorsschnabel
Why tf do people keep adding gate after a word gate doesn’t mean controversy it’s a reference to Nixon and the Watergate hotel like what
elspethsunschampion
Okay sunshineduk I’m going to annoy you again. Is there a linguistic reason for the <thing>-gate phenomenon? It feels like there must be.
sunshineduk
THERE SURE IS, and it’s pretty fascinating! Its name is Bill Safire. Bill Safire was a linguist, speechwriter, and die-hard conservative. These days he’s best known as the writer for many decades of the NYT’s On Language column, which has done more to popularize linguistics and linguistic awareness than just about any other singular source, so I gotta give Safire props on that point. He was also a damn fine etymologist, among other things.
But his most lasting legacy is the generalization of the -gate suffix. As a New York Times columnist, he was well-positioned to write things that would reach a staggeringly wide audience, and he understood the power that afforded him. So as early as 1974, he began applying the -gate suffix to any political scandal he could find, starting with Vietgate in reference to potentially pardoning Vietnam draft dodgers. Other Safire coinages include Contragate, Debategate, Whitewatergate, Housegate, Nannygate, and Doublebillingsgate (his personal favorite).
But why do all this? Why focus so hard on a single suffix? Because, as I said, he was very conscious of his power. Watergate had been the scandal that destroyed Nixon, not just as a President, but as a person. Safire had been Nixon’s speechwriter for years, and was a fierce supporter. By turning the -gate suffix from a targeted memory of Nixon’s failure into an almost comedically overused common word, Safire hoped to diminish the record of Watergate itself by extension. Many theorized he was in some way trying to do the opposite–get revenge on Nixon’s enemies by painting them with the brush of guilt by association by linguistically connecting them to Watergate–but Safire himself claims that he was more focused on minimizing the direct cultural memory of Nixon’s crimes.
If that was his intent, it certainly backfired. While he successfully pushed -gate into the common lexicon as a now-firmly-established suffix meaning “controversy,” in doing so he also even more firmly ensconced Watergate into America’s cultural memory. Every time a new -gate scandal emerges, comparisons to Watergate are inevitable, and Nixon’s failures are brought back into focus. By generalizing -gate into common language, so too did Safire trap its etymological origins into common memory–an ironic legacy for one of the world’s greatest and most popular etymologists.
