-gate, comb. form

1973    National Lampoon Aug. 27/2   There have been persistent rumors in Russia of a vast scandal.‥ Implicated in ‘the Volgagate’ are a group of liberal officials.

1975    Mod. People 1 Oct. 1 (heading)    Shocking Dallasgate revealed.

1976    Guardian Weekly 5 Dec. 6/2   The continually expanding scandal over the Park regime's influence peddling on Capitol Hill has already been called a ‘Koreagate’.

1978    Newsweek 23 Jan. 55/3   Rumors of a coverup spread, and journalists scurried to investigate what some were already calling Hollywoodgate.

1978    Maclean's 9 Oct. 66 (caption)    Thorpe and Whitehall-gate: how the Establishment works.

1986    Independent 10 Dec. 12/3   It is all too easy for Mr Reagan‥to see ‘Irangate’ purely in domestic American terms.

1975    Wall St. Jrnl. 24 Apr. 1/6 (heading)    Motorgate: how a floating corpse led to a fraud inquiry and ousters by GM.

1977    N.Y. Times Mag. 16 Oct. 38/1   Lancegate is no Watergate.‥ The Carter men had hardly a month to plan‥a downplaying of Bert Lance's problems.

1978    Time 6 Mar. 21/2   Many friends of Flood's will probably be touched by the investigation, which is already becoming known as ‘Floodgate’.

1978    Observer 10 Dec. 5/1   The South African Government easily defeated‥an attempt‥to force its resignation over ‘Muldergate’—the Information Department scandal.

1979    Observer 29 July 4/1   ‘Totegate’‥centres on the Tote's practice of collecting off-course bets and sending them for inclusion‥at the racecourse up to five minutes after the result of the race is known.

1980    Newsweek 18 Aug. 81/1   The unfolding tale of Billy Carter and his Libyan connection—an affair that many big-city dailies still call ‘Billygate’.

1983    Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News 11 July 4/2   It seems to me absurd—on the basis of what we know now—to equate ‘Cartergate’ with ‘Watergate’.

1986    Marxism Today Sept. 41/3   The current deterioration of the Ulster environment will continue unabated‥if future developments significantly touch the RUC (‘Stalkergate’) or the judiciary.

1973    Saturday Rev. World (U.S.) 20 Nov. 45/1   Inevitably, the brouhaha of Bordeaux became known as Wine-gate.

1975    Time 18 Aug. 67/2   The suspects allegedly falsified records, fed incriminating evidence through a paper shredder and conducted a cover-up so pervasive that one investigator calls it ‘Ice Cream Gate’.

1976    Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News 11 Apr. d14/7   Farmers in Zuiderveen's Missaukee County have distributed bumper stickers that say ‘PBB: Cattlegate bigger than Watergate.’

1978    Time 2 Oct. 43/1   The affair that Britons were dubbing ‘Oilgate’ threatened to reach into the highest places.

1983    Wall St. Jrnl. 8 July 20/2   ‘Hearingsgate’ is now before the House ethics committee.

1983    Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News 2 Aug. 4/5   In their zeal to pump ‘Altergate’ into a full-blown scandal‥Gregg and Hiler charged that‥alterations had been made in the transcripts of‥other hearings.