# "-gate" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469 "2013-08-06T03:28:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/1 "2013-08-06T03:28:50Z")
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?) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/2 "2013-08-06T03:33:42Z")
Looks like it may have been Vietgate, in 1974, but here’s a list of far more than I even knew existed… > **[List of -gate scandals and controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_%22-gate%22_suffix)** > > This is a list of scandals or controversies whose names include a -gate suffix, by analogy with the Watergate scandal, as well as other incidents to which the suffix has (often facetiously) been applied. This list also includes controversies that are widely referred to with a -gate suffix, but may be referred to by another more common name (such as the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, known as "Bountygate"). Use of the -gate suffix has spread beyond American English to many other countries a... ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/3 "2013-08-06T03:36:08Z")
It appears to be [Volgagate](http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/12/clichegate.html), which first appeared in the National Lampoon, of all places. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/4 "2013-08-06T03:42:28Z")
> **[List of -gate scandals and controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_%22-gate%22_suffix)** > > This is a list of scandals or controversies whose names include a -gate suffix, by analogy with the Watergate scandal, as well as other incidents to which the suffix has (often facetiously) been applied. This list also includes controversies that are widely referred to with a -gate suffix, but may be referred to by another more common name (such as the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, known as "Bountygate"). Use of the -gate suffix has spread beyond American English to many other countries a... 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 !) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/5 "2013-08-06T04:02:56Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/6 "2013-08-06T04:12:37Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > (and when the hell will people stop using it?) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/7 "2013-08-06T05:17:31Z")
I believe you mean [Watergategate](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9JgxhXW5w). ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/8 "2013-08-06T05:27:42Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/9 "2013-08-06T15:08:05Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/10 "2013-08-06T15:19:04Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/11 "2013-08-06T15:20:56Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > 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?)**_ (bolding mine) Seeing as how this ‘wordgate’ has become so scandalously contentious, I predict… never. 😃 D&R ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/12 "2013-08-06T15:29:36Z")
[Elevatorgate](http://revolutionaryatheist.tumblr.com/post/49553395619/elevatorgate-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-and) and [Donglegate](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/donglegate-adria-richards) show that it’s still the go-to suffix, though used for ever-decreasingly important conflicts. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/13 "2013-08-06T15:53:04Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > [Elevatorgate](http://revolutionaryatheist.tumblr.com/post/49553395619/elevatorgate-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-and) and [Donglegate](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/donglegate-adria-richards) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gate/665469/14 "2013-08-07T04:20:26Z")
“–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.)