The use of the suffix "-gate"

[xotoxi]

Is anyone else annoyed by the use of the suffix "-gate" used to describe any controversy?

Currently we have "Climategate". Last year there was "Troopergate"

The only LEGITIMATE "-gate" was "Watergate", but that is only because "-gate" is part of the word "watergate".

This is just like people adding "-holic" to everything relating to addiction...like "chocoholic" or "workaholic".

"-holic" only truly applies to someone addicted to alcohol.

 

[☭proletarian☭]

Are you mad about the whole xotoxigate thing about when you were sent to treatment for being a postaholic?

 

[Zoom-boing]

Is anyone else annoyed by the use of the suffix "-gate" used to describe any controversy?

Currently we have "Climategate". Last year there was "Troopergate"

The only LEGITIMATE "-gate" was "Watergate", but that is only because "-gate" is part of the word "watergate".

This is just like people adding "-holic" to everything relating to addiction...like "chocoholic" or "workaholic".

"-holic" only truly applies to someone addicted to alcohol.

No. Don't let the gate hit ya on the way out.

 

[AllieBaba]

I think you're all fartgates.

 

[AllieBaba]

Though a few are urinegates as well.

 

[xotoxi]

Are you mad about the whole xotoxigate thing about when you were sent to treatment for being a postaholic?

The reason why Xotoxigate was a big deal was that all of the Xotoxiholics went through Xotoxiholic withdrawal when I was sent for treatment for my postaholism.

 

[Oddball]

It's annoying, but the way it is.

I'm annoyed by marketing hacks calling clearance sales "events", but howling at the moon over it does nothing.

 

[noose4]

Is anyone else annoyed by the use of the suffix "-gate" used to describe any controversy?

Currently we have "Climategate". Last year there was "Troopergate"

The only LEGITIMATE "-gate" was "Watergate", but that is only because "-gate" is part of the word "watergate".

This is just like people adding "-holic" to everything relating to addiction...like "chocoholic" or "workaholic".

"-holic" only truly applies to someone addicted to alcohol.

is this the start of gaterage-gate?

 

[Paulie]

It's annoying, but the way it is.

I'm annoyed by marketing hacks calling clearance sales "events", but howling at the moon over it does nothing.

But they ARE events! They're recession-busters!

 

[☭proletarian☭]

gatergate: A series of scandals in 2009 involving a numbers parties accusing eachother of '-gates', followed by a massive reaction to this. In the end, it became scandalous to accuse others of scandal, leading to a period of hilaritous obsurdity.

Taken from The Encyclopedia USMB

 

[California Girl]

Is anyone else annoyed by the use of the suffix "-gate" used to describe any controversy?

Currently we have "Climategate". Last year there was "Troopergate"

The only LEGITIMATE "-gate" was "Watergate", but that is only because "-gate" is part of the word "watergate".

This is just like people adding "-holic" to everything relating to addiction...like "chocoholic" or "workaholic".

"-holic" only truly applies to someone addicted to alcohol.

is this the start of gaterage-gate?

There is an obsessive hateragegate towards gateragegate.

 

[xotoxi]

It's annoying, but the way it is.

I'm annoyed by marketing hacks calling clearance sales "events", but howling at the moon over it does nothing.

So that means that you've howled at the moon about it?

 

[Oddball]

Nope...And never started a goofy thread about it either.

 

[Diuretic]

I'm trying to remember what the catch-phrase was before Watergate.

Were things like this described as "affairs"? I remember the "Profumo Affair" in Britain in the 1960s but then John Profumo was banging a call girl so I suppose it was an "affair" of sorts.

Everything is "....gate" here in Australia as well. Well at least Watergate seems to have given the English-speaking world an enduring cliche.

 

[Jon]

"-holic" only truly applies to someone addicted to alcohol.

Wrong.

-aholic - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

 

[☭proletarian☭]

"-holic" only truly applies to someone addicted to alcohol.

Wrong.

-aholic - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

from your link

Main Entry: -aholic
Variant(s): also -oholic
Function: noun combining form
Etymology: alcoholic

1 : one who feels compulsively the need to (do something) <workaholic>
2 : one who likes (something) to excess <chocoholic>

You just made Jon's point

 

[Big Black Dog]

Can't wait for the Democrats to get their Health Care Reform bill turned into a law so we can withness all the unemployed Democrats exit Congress after the next election through the STUPIDGATE.

 

[Xenophon]

If Clinton had a scandal involing his tub, would they call it 'Billy bathgate?'

 

[Jon]

"-holic" only truly applies to someone addicted to alcohol.

Wrong.

-aholic - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

from your link

Main Entry: -aholic
Variant(s): also -oholic
Function: noun combining form
Etymology: alcoholic

1 : one who feels compulsively the need to (do something) <workaholic>
2 : one who likes (something) to excess <chocoholic>

You just made Jon's point

I'm confused.

1. Because I'm Jon.
2. Because the fact that the suffix -aholic is derived from the word alcoholic does not mean it only applies to alcoholics, which was xotoxi's statement.

 

[&#9773;proletarian&#9773;]

Xotoxi's meaning was clear in his/her/its post and your own source verified the original point.