phrase
Watergate
The original modern political scandal โ and the suffix '-gate' now appended to every successor.
Origin
In June 1972, operatives linked to President Nixon's re-election campaign broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. The cover-up unraveled over two years and forced Nixon to resign in 1974 โ the only U.S. president ever to do so. Since then, virtually every political scandal has been branded '-gate': Deflategate, Pizzagate, Partygate.
Modern usage
Used both for major political wrongdoing and, satirically, for trivial controversies that don't deserve the comparison.
In the wild
It's a Watergate-level breach of trust.โ political commentary
Tags
scandal
cover-up
suffix