Why is the word 'gate' used when referring to scandals

... asks Archie Mac
A. It stems from Watergate, the US political scandal�that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon. Watergate is the name of the apartment block in Washington DC where a botched-up burglary by those who wanted Nixon re-elected led to a cover-up.

�

Q. Wasn't it a film
A. Yes, there was All The President's Men (1976), starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, based on the book of the same name (1974) by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists who uncovered the scandal. The book and film popularised the many Watergate phrases and sayings.

�

Q. What were they
A. Well, there's the title Woodward and Bernstein chose for their book, for a start. It was taken from a saying of Henry Kissinger's at the time of the 1970 invasion of Cambodia: 'We are all the president's men, and we must behave accordingly.' And then there's 'Cut off at the pass'...

�

Q. Doesn't that come from old Western films, where someone is ambushed
A. Yes, but it's also famous for its use in The White House Transcripts (1974), which recorded conversations between Nixon and his aides. Nixon used it to mean employing certain tactics to stop someone doing something.

�

Q. Weren't there some 'deep' sayings, too
A. That's right. To 'deep-six', which means to jettison overboard (it refers to six fathoms, or 36 feet), was used when one of Nixon's henchmen was told to 'deep-six' a briefcase while driving across a river. And, more famously, there 'deep throat', the nickname of the source within the White House who supplied Woodward and Bernstein with information which helped in their investigations. It has come to mean someone who provides information anonymously about misconduct within an organisation.

�

Q. Sounds like Nixon and his aides were a thoroughly bad lot...
A. Yes, and they swore a lot, too, which is where we get 'expletive deleted'. Used in the US to indicate that an offensive word or phrase has been removed from a printed document, it became famous because of its use in The White House Transcripts.

�

Q. So they didn't get away with it, then
A. Not a chance. Which leads to another phrase - smoking pistol or gun, which means incontrovertible evidence. It became popular after one of the Watergate tapes revealed Nixon discussing how the FBI's investigation into the Watergate burglary could be limited. Barber B. Conable famously said, I guess we have found the smoking pistol, haven't we '

�

To ask more phrases and sayings-related questions, click here

By Hermoine Gray

�