-gate

This is a list of scandals or controversies whose names in scholarly sources include a "-gate" suffix, by analogy with the Watergate scandal. This list also includes controversies that are widely referred to with a "-gate" suffix, but may be referred to by another more common name in scholarly sources (such as New Orleans Saints bounty scandal). Although the Watergate scandal was specifically to do with internal US politics, the "-gate" suffix has been used throughout the English-speaking world.

The suffix derives from the Watergate scandal of the United States in the early 1970s, which resulted in the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon. The scandal was named after the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.; the complex itself was named after the "Water Gate" area where symphony orchestra concerts were staged on the Potomac River between 1935 and 1965.

The suffix is used to embellish a noun or name to suggest the existence of a far-reaching scandal, particularly in politics and government. As a CBC News column noted in 2001, the term may "suggest unethical behaviour and a cover-up".

Such usages have been criticised by commentators as clichéd and misleading;James Stanyer comments that "revelations are given the 'gate' suffix to add a thin veil of credibility, following 'Watergate', but most bear no resemblance to the painstaking investigation of that particular piece of presidential corruption". Stanyer links the widespread use of -gate to what the sociologist John Thompson calls "scandal syndrome":

...
Wikipedia