Yet another valid turn of phrase is demeaned

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**Tyyr**

Sorry, tacking -gate onto something has never been anything but media hype to try and make something seem big, scandalous, and important.

**nintendoeats**

Fair enough, but does it not seem that it is being attatched to more and more ludicrous things?

I'm sure that if we found the initial useage of the term, it was for something either

a)reasonably major
b)that the writer was totally taking the piss on.

**Monster Rain**

Tyyr wrote:But why is it worth bitching about? It's not like it was clever to begin with, or even worth lamenting. Adding "-gate" onto something has never been clever or reserved for anything of import. You're bemoaning the total dilution of a pop-culture turn of the phrase that was idiotic the first time it was used?

Wasn't the whole point of it it to be funny in the first place?

I remember, back in the day, they just started using it in a snarky sort of way to mean something was a scandal.

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

Sorry if I have misunderstood, but the scandal occured at a place called Watergate.
So it wasn't lame first time it was used. Second maybe

Just symptomatic of journalism at a time of sound bites (itself a wonderful expression) because it quicker to get the gist of the headline across if you say
Chibigate, than having to say the, Great Chibi Manga Scandal. With gate tagging along everyone knows that it is another media feeding frenzy over a scandal!

I like the irony that messages have to be got across to the viewer exceedingly quickly within a 24 hour rolling news broadcast.

Would it be correct that the -gate thing is initially derived from the needs of newspaper headlines, but has carried over into the rest of the media?

**Monster Rain**

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Sorry if I have misunderstood, but the scandal occured at a place called Watergate.
So it wasn't lame first time it was used. Second maybe

Yes, Watergate was the scandal from which the whole "-gate" thing was derived.

I was referring more to the media's habit of attaching it to other things like memogate and tacogate and whatnot.

**nintendoeats**

holy crap...I can't beleive that there is really a tacogate...

**Monster Rain**

nintendoeats wrote:holy crap...I can't beleive that there is really a tacogate...

No way, really? I just threw that in there to be a smartass!

**nintendoeats**

google says tacogate.

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

now that really is cheesy

**Tyyr**

nintendoeats wrote:Fair enough, but does it not seem that it is being attatched to more and more ludicrous things?

I don't disagree, but to me it's like bemoaning the decline in quality of Pauly Shore movies.

And by the way, Chibi-gate was blown WAAAAY out of proportion.

**Kilkrazy**

Blame soundbite news culture.

**nintendoeats**

I blame everybody. Its a communal problem. People only mkae it cause we buy it (because its all they make...vicious circle).

**Orkeosaurus**

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Now I have put on my power armour feel a little safer but will still run and hide. Could be a tad contentious.

"You do the math!"
Math?

At school I never excelled at mathmatics
never had a subject called mathmatic
nor physic, which is an archaic term for a doctor.
We did do physics however, at which I failed.

My real ojection is hearing British children say "math". The Americans have distorted English enough for it to make any real difference!

Mathematics is an uncountable verb; it is neither properly singular nor properly plural. You don't say you are going to do a mathematics, but neither do you say mathematics were your worst subjects. It is similar to "rice", "information", "food", "thirst", and many other words.

The only time that "mathematics" is truly plural is when used to refer not to the subject of mathematics as a broad discipline, but to the smaller mathematical disciplines together. For instance, if I said "algebra, geometry, arithmetic, and trigonometry are all mathematics", then I would be using it in a truly plural manner. Similar to if I referred to brown rice, white rice, and wild rice as "rices", apples, pizza, and cheese as "foods", the technology for handling many different types of information as "informations technology" (a little less common), etc.

Thus, the correct abbreviation for the subject - a singular subject which may encompass many smaller ones - is "math". "Maths" is only properly used to refer to multiple mathematical subdisciplines being referred to outside of a set. While "math" is not used to refer to a truly singular noun, "maths" is used to refer to a truly plural noun, and so the singular form aligns with the use that is closer to singular.

IMHO, of course.

**Monster Rain**

nintendoeats wrote:I blame everybody. Its a communal problem. People only mkae it cause we buy it (because its all they make...vicious circle).

I really don't think it's that widespread a problem outside of the news media.

It's just part of their jargon now, and will most likely be forever now. The culture and language is going to evolve... I don't get what the big deal is here.

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

but neither do you say mathematics were your worst subjects

I started Pure and Applied Maths A levels and I assure you, they most definitely were my worst subjects

But no one says that they are going to do a math/mathematic either. But an interesting post.
The plural of rice is rice, not rices. At some point the s got added onto the end of Maths. Or it was always there and it got thrown out into the harbour with the t

**dogma**

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:
The plural of rice is rice, not rices.

When used in a varietal sense (long grain, short grain, basmati, etc.) the plural of rice is indeed rices. Indeed, strictly speaking, rice is a word which is always plural; with the 'plural' form actually being a categorical, rather than material, referent.

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

doh- it's late here and i need my sleeps
stand corrected Dogma.

**sebster**

Affixing -gate is pretty lame, but I don't think its because of any reference to Watergate. I think it's lame because it touches on the media cycle of running with a new political event every few weeks, each with its own title. It's politics as a sitcom, you have an episode every week with a character arc that's reset just in time for a new episode. But the issue there isn't language, it's media and culture.

When it comes to language I'm all for new words. I might think individual words are pretty lame, but the more words we add to our language the better we express ourselves. My concern is when unique words have their meanings shifted, leaving us with no word to describe that concept. Irony and Literally are the best examples, these are words with specific meanings.