In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, what was the first usage of “-gate” to denote a scandal?
(and when the hell will people stop using it?)
Looks like it may have been Vietgate, in 1974, but here’s a list of far more than I even knew existed…
It appears to be Volgagate, which first appeared in the National Lampoon, of all places.
Says Koreagate, 1976
Its early, and its very serious corruption, so correctly using the term.
(eg its unclear that Vietgate is really a *gate. In the same wikipedia article, there was someone who tried to coin gate’s left right and centre, including Vietgate, at about 1976 … but this is mis-use or giving the term a new meaning, and not many journalists copied. So its a counter -example, a warning, not to mention false gate’s !)
I remember Koreagate as the first one, at least in wide usage.
To toot my horn, we had Pastrygate in Thailand, a term I personally coined. Someone got caught trying to bribe a judge here with a bunch of money stuffed into a pastry box, and I half-jokingly suggested to a reporter friend that he call it Pastrygate, and he did. The term stuck, and even Jonathan Head used it in one of his BBC reports.
That’s what I want to know! Watergate was a huge fucking deal, and now it gets tacked onto every single little thing that’s even a minor controversy.
I believe you mean Watergategate.
Apparently Nixon’s old flunky William Safire coined as many -gate terms as he could think of, in an attempt to trivialize the Constitution-subverting high crimes and misdemeanors of his boss.
As I recall, the first uses of -gate were happening before Nixon’s resignation, and falling flat. It took a couple of years before it’s usage was considered ironic instead of merely imitative.
More importantly, has there been any use of the -gate construction that, in hindsight, doesn’t sound supremely stupid? Looking at the Wiki list I’m not seeing many candidates.
Though “coalgate,” which I’ve never previously heard of, has a zing to it, combining coal and toothpaste imagery.
And amusing to me from that list is “fajitagate,” which I do remember, as removed from context my brain tries to pronounce it as if it is Japanese.
I also like to think that in the early days of Watergate coverage there were attempts to label it “Watergate Dome” as a callback to an earlier scandal.
(bolding mine)
Seeing as how this ‘wordgate’ has become so scandalously contentious, I predict… never. 
D&R
Elevatorgate and Donglegate show that it’s still the go-to suffix, though used for ever-decreasingly important conflicts.
The real problem is that adding “-ocaust” to the end of things ever caught on.
“–gate” had previously referred to various gates to City of London, each of which apparently had some sort of odd behaviour associated with it. “Billingsgate,” as I recall, was a nickname for a child who swore too much. (It was also Edmund Blackadder’s neighborhood.)