This is a list of scandals or controversies whose names include a -gate suffix, by analogy with the Watergate scandal , as well as other incidents to which the suffix has often facetiously been applied.
Use of the -gate suffix has spread beyond American English to many other countries and languages. The suffix -gate derives from the Watergate scandal in the United States in the early s, which resulted in the resignation of US President Richard Nixon.
The suffix has become productive as a libfix and 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 , the term may "suggest unethical behaviour and a cover-up ". 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 , he wrote of "Vietgate", a proposed pardon of the Watergate criminals and Vietnam War draft dodgers.
