-gate
-gate: suffisso
Tom Brady addressed the Patriots’ DeflateGate scandal in a news conference with media on Thursday afternoon.
A games developer who had to leave her home after receiving threats at the height of the Gamergate furore has set up a support group for other victims.
A police officer who witnessed the so-called “plebgate” row says it was a “nonsense incident” that should not have cost Andrew Mitchell his job.
Pastagate hit a national nerve about how these language policies ostensibly meant to reinforce French cultural heritage are imposed.
The so-called Nipplegate resulted in a censorship ruling that went to the Supreme Court, ruined MTV’s relationship with the NFL, and made one career while unfairly ruining another.
Gli appassionati di football americano, ma forse non solo loro, saranno senz’altro al corrente della bufera che si è scatenata sui New England Patriots, accusati di aver giocato con palloni sgonfi nella partita contro gli Indianapolis Colts: la vicenda è stata prontamente definita Deflategate (deflate = sgonfiare). La scorsa estate è stata la volta del Gamergate, una brutta storia di misoginia e sessismo nel mondo dei videogame, mentre un paio d’anni fa l’agenzia che difende la purezza della lingua francese in Quebec si è trovata al centro del cosidetto Pastagate, dopo avere ordinato a un ristorante italiano di ridurre il numero di parole italiane nel menù.
Per una bizzarra coincidenza i New England Patriots erano stati coinvolti in un altro –gate una decina d’anni fa quando avevano vinto il Super Bowl del 2004. Della seguitissima finale del campionato di football americano quell’anno si parlò più per il ‘malfunzionamento del vestito’ di Janet Jackson durante lo show dell’intervallo, che per un attimo lasciò la cantante con un seno nudo – incidente battezzato Nipplegate (nipple = capezzolo) – che per l’azione di gioco in campo.
Origini del termine
In principio c’era il Watergate. Il suffisso –gate infatti ha origine dallo scandalo che sconvolse gli USA nei primi anni ’70 e che costò a Richard Nixon la reputazione e la carriera. William Safire, giornalista del New York Times e fedelissimo di Nixon, coniò in seguito altri termini col suffisso –gate, da Billygate (vicenda che implicava il fratello del presidente democratico Jimmy Carter) a Whitewatergate (in cui fu trascinato un altro presidente democratico, Bill Clinton). Da allora il suffisso –gate è diventato sinonimo di scandalo, in particolare uno a sfondo politico.
-gate: suffix
Tom Brady addressed the Patriots’ DeflateGate scandal in a news conference with media on Thursday afternoon.
A games developer who had to leave her home after receiving threats at the height of the Gamergate furore has set up a support group for other victims.
A police officer who witnessed the so-called “plebgate” row says it was a “nonsense incident” that should not have cost Andrew Mitchell his job.
Pastagate hit a national nerve about how these language policies ostensibly meant to reinforce French cultural heritage are imposed.
The so-called Nipplegate resulted in a censorship ruling that went to the Supreme Court, ruined MTV’s relationship with the NFL, and made one career while unfairly ruining another.
If you’ve been following the sports news recently, you’ll be aware that the New England Patriots football team have been accused of playing with under-inflated balls in a match against the Indianapolis Colts. The story hit the headlines with the rhyming tag Deflategate and immediately became global news. Last summer we had the Gamergate saga, a sorry tale of misogyny and harassment in the gaming world, while a couple of years back Quebec’s language agency found itself at the centre of a media storm after ordering an Italian restaurant to reduce the number of Italian words on its menus, a story that quickly became known as Pastagate.
Oddly enough the Patriots were involved in another –gate furore just over a decade ago, as they were the winning team in the 2004 Super Bowl, which became more famous as a result of Janet Jackson’s half-time ‘wardrobe malfunction’, inevitably dubbed Nipplegate, than for anything that happened on the field.
Origins
The origin of the –gate suffix was, of course, Watergate, the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Complex in Washington DC in 1972 that eventually cost Richard Nixon his reputation and his career. The name of the building, which refers to the Water Gate area on the Potomac River, is purely incidental.
The use of –gate as a suffix to flag up a scandal was popularized in the aftermath of Watergate by New York Times columnist and Nixon supporter William Safire, who coined numerous examples, from Billygate (a scandal involving President Jimmy Carter’s brother) to Whitewatergate (allegations of wrongdoing by another Democratic President, Bill Clinton). Ever since, subeditors and journalists have rarely passed up the opportunity to give an instant boost to a story by coining variations on Safire’s original theme, and –gate has become standard journalistic shorthand for a scandal, particularly but not exclusively a political one.
