Of of course you knowwhywe do it . In a classic illustration of metonymy , the media and polish at great start referring to the 1972 political scandal that eventually force Richard Nixon to submit as " Watergate , " the name of the hotel and role building complex where burglars tie to the administration were caught sample to weaken in to the Democratic National Committee military headquarters .
But how is it that , over 40 years later , the NFL can notice itself mired in a " deflategate " ? When did that syllable become such an accept suffix ?
Pretty quickly , it seems . News of the original Watergate burglary and coverup break in June , 1972 . During the next yr , newspapers might have described unelaborated deportment as " Watergatery " or an unscrupulous politician as a " Watergater , " grounds that the dirt had instantly permeate the voice communication . Almost a twelvemonth after the actual Watergate , thefirst example of the - gatesuffixappeared in anAugust 1973 issueofNational Lampoonmagazine as part of a satirical account about a fake Russian outrage , which the magazine dub " Volgagate . " That report made a verbatim comparability to Nixon and the actual Watergate , so the usage is more about drawing a latitude within the objet d’art itself .
William Safire , a former speechwriter for Nixon , is often credit with forcing - gateinto the pop vocabulary during his vocation as aNew York Timescolumnist . In a1996 issueofNew Yorkmagazine , Noam Cohen takes objective at Safire , compile an " foreshorten dictionary " of - gatescoined by the editorialist and accusing him of an attempt at " rehabilitating Nixon by unrelentingly tarring his successors with the same rhetorical brush — fall guilt trip by affiliation . "
( Safire later admit that this accusation might not be totally off - base in Eric Alterman’sSound and the frenzy : The Making of the Punditocrcy . Altermanwrites : " Safire today allow in that , psychologically , he may have been seeking to minimize the importance of the offence committed by his former foreman with this fatuousness . " )
Of course by then , Safire , or anyone else , did n’t call for an excuse to use to the suffix . In 1993 the scandal - based definition was added to the Merriam Webster dictionary .
[ h / t for the melodic theme to the o.k. folks at the John Carney show on KTRS ]
