Is there a word for this Phenomena?

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Taylor Harbin

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Every major scandal is called “-gate” because of Watergate. Is there a word for this kind of change in language?
 

Stytch

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Nomenclature?
Suffix?
Nicknames?
Shorthand?
Laziness?
 

mrsmig

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lonestarlibrarian

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It doesn't happen very often, so I'm not sure if there's a formal word for it, but it happened in the 19th c, with -mandering. (The original word was gerrymandering, but there's been Henrymandering, jurymandering, Perrymandering, Tullymandering, etc. But those words never really stuck around.) The article also claims that -ghazi has become a new word like this, but I didn't hear any of the cites in the wild--- the Patriots and their football were called Deflategate, not Ballghazi, and while I remember Chris Christie's traffic jam, I don't remember it being called Bridgeghazi rather than Bridgegate.

My hypothesis would be, since people died at Benghazi, Americans are less likely to throw the word around casually and attach it to bridges or footballs, whereas political stuff like gerrymandering or Watergate scandals is fair game.

So I'd say the -ghazi isn't a suffix that's caught on, which leaves just the two.

From a Wiki article that lists various -gate scandals---


The adoption of -gate to suggest the existence of a scandal was promoted by William Safire, the conservative New York Times columnist and former Nixon administration speechwriter. As early as September 1974 he wrote of "Vietgate", a proposed pardon of the Watergate criminals and Vietnam War draft dodgers.[SUP][8][/SUP] Subsequently, he coined numerous -gate terms, including Billygate, Briefingate, Contragate, Deavergate, Debategate, Doublebillingsgate (of which he later said "My best [-gate coinage] was the encapsulation of a minor ... scandal as doublebillingsgate"), Frankiegate, Franklingate, Genschergate, Housegate, Iraqgate, Koreagate, Lancegate, Maggiegate, Nannygate, Raidergate, Scalpgate, Travelgate, Troopergate and Whitewatergate. The New York magazine suggested that his aim in doing so was "rehabilitating Nixon by relentlessly tarring his successors with the same rhetorical brush – diminished guilt by association".[SUP][9][/SUP] Safire himself later said to author Eric Alterman that he "may have been seeking to minimize the relative importance of the crimes committed by his former boss with this silliness".
 
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Taylor Harbin

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Thanks for the replies. I’ve researching an article about the years 1889-1945 where it seemed every unknown criminal was called “Jack the ____” in American newspapers. I was grasping for similar cases and Watergate came to mind. I guess it’s closer to a nickname than anything else.
 

frimble3

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The article also claims that -ghazi has become a new word like this, but I didn't hear any of the cites in the wild--- the Patriots and their football were called Deflategate, not Ballghazi, and while I remember Chris Christie's traffic jam, I don't remember it being called Bridgeghazi rather than Bridgegate.

My hypothesis would be, since people died at Benghazi, Americans are less likely to throw the word around casually and attach it to bridges or footballs, whereas political stuff like gerrymandering or Watergate scandals is fair game.

So I'd say the -ghazi isn't a suffix that's caught on, which leaves just the two.

From a Wiki article that lists various -gate scandals---

I would have suspected that -ghazi didn't catch on because it's trickier to spell.
And, -gate works so well to encapsulate 'looking into a hidden political scandal' that '-ghazi' seems unnecessary.
 

neandermagnon

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I thought it was called a portmanteau if you chop up bits of words and stick them together in new ways.
 

mrsmig

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I thought it was called a portmanteau if you chop up bits of words and stick them together in new ways.

Not quite. In this instance, it's adding "gate" as a suffix to other words to signify something illegal or scandalous. A portmanteau is a bit different. As the term's originator, Lewis Carroll, put it (via Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass): "You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word." So portmanteau words are like smog (smoke + fog), or motel (motor + hotel), even Carroll's own chortle (chuckle + snort).

Brexit is a portmanteau of British + exit, but what's interesting is that its use has caused "exit" to be given the Watergate effect treatment as well - applied as a suffix in usages like Frexit, Swexit and Grexit.
 

Maryn

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In addition to -gate, consider the suffix-al use of -aholic. Workaholic, chocoholic, Billsaholic (which I heard this morning, referring to the Buffalo Bills), and so on, widely used for at least twenty years.

Maryn
 

benbenberi

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There are a set of words that appear to derive from marathon -- telethon, walkathon, begathon, danceathon, hackathon, etc.

Also some based on cafeteria -- luncheteria, washeteria, danceteria, gaseteria, etc

And the ones that follow automat -- laundromat, fotomat, etc

A lot of these were retail stores.
 

neandermagnon

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Not quite. In this instance, it's adding "gate" as a suffix to other words to signify something illegal or scandalous. A portmanteau is a bit different. As the term's originator, Lewis Carroll, put it (via Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass): "You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word." So portmanteau words are like smog (smoke + fog), or motel (motor + hotel), even Carroll's own chortle (chuckle + snort).

Brexit is a portmanteau of British + exit, but what's interesting is that its use has caused "exit" to be given the Watergate effect treatment as well - applied as a suffix in usages like Frexit, Swexit and Grexit.


Thanks for the clarification :Thumbs: I get it now :)
 

benbenberi

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Brexit is a portmanteau of British + exit, but what's interesting is that its use has caused "exit" to be given the Watergate effect treatment as well - applied as a suffix in usages like Frexit, Swexit and Grexit.

I seem to recall there was a lot of talk about possible Grexit several years before Brexit was a thing. That may be Portmanteau Zero of the set.
 
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