Gee, in the Pretrumpian Era, was there such a stability and orderliness that the Watergate scandal forever shattered that cognitive stability regarding government? Or has the English language become so ossified that we reflexively fall on a few hackneyed terms (or suffixes, in this case) to encapsulate an idea?
The latest thrill ride to evoke the -gate suffix is beachgate now. Apparently beaches in Jersey were closed due to inadequate funding; but guess who managed to appear like a beached whale on Jersey Shore? No, it wasn't Snooki. Yes, the Tub Guv* in all his splendor.
I move that '-gate' be included among the List of Banned Words that Lake Superior State University comes out with for 2018.
*Not to be mistaken for Alabama's former Luv Guv, Robert Bentley.
13 comments:
Tub Guv? Love it!
-gate is overworked. But it is too late to close that door after 40 years.
Profumo agrees!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Profumo
John Dennis Profumo, CBE was a British politician whose career ended in 1963 after a sexual relationship with the 19-year-old model Christine Keeler in 1961.
Overuse of the -gate could be gategate.
Looks like we're going to swing on the garden gate for a while.
"B.A." is terrific! I live in NJ and hadn't heard "tub gov"; so appropriate.
t think "-gate" started with writers trying to be clever then as a shorthand. Now it's just laziness or lowest common denominator.
I agree it's completely over used but don't think it'll stop any time soon.
I completely agree and have been registering the same complaint for a long time. Seeing as how the original incident occurred at the Watergate Hotel, it made perfect sense to refer to it as the "Watergate scandal" or simply as "Watergate".
But tacking the word "gate" onto the back of every controversial issue since then really is nonsensical. What has a "gate" got to do with anything that's not related to an entrance or exit?
Nonetheless, Mike's newly coined word, "Gategate", made me laugh out loud.
~ D-FensDogG
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
If there's ever a major scandal involving former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, it would be Gatesgate, which would also be the plural of Mike's gategate. And I agree with Allen - B.A. is a good marker of modern time for bloggers!
Unfortunately, most of my life falls into the B.A. era.
Note: I don't think I'll be using Before John initials to describe the era prior to my birth!
Youre right: the -gate suffix is a lazy way of denoting scandal.
A Luv Guv and a Tub Guv. Is a Lt.Gov. who becomes Governor a Sub Guv?
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