A short essay looking at contemporary neologisms

- Choose any TWO combining forms (prefixes or suffixes) which are currently popular and in common usage. Give several examples of their use, commenting on what you take to be their meaning.

Firstly, I have chosen to look at the suffix ‘ism’. Long established words such as

‘socialism’ and ‘communism’ have the meaning of describing a particular political

philosophy. The idea of using the suffix ‘ism’ and combining it with an individual’s name

to describe that person’s political philosophy is not a new one. The word ‘Marxism’

surely entered the English language at, or shortly after, the time of Karl Marx is used to

describe his political ideals.

In my lifetime, I have seen this sort of neologism give rise to the words ‘Thatcherism’ and

‘Blairism’. This usage of a name + ‘ism’ is only a twentieth century manifestation of the

process that gave us ‘Marxism’. Maxwell (2004) makes a very good point though when

she observes that “Many coinages based on proper nouns are ephemeral, only lasting

as long as media and public interest in the individuals they are based on.” Having said

that, ‘Marxism’ has endured. In 30 or 40 years time, will people still talk about

Thatcherism and Blairism or will these words have been consigned to the history books?

Only time will tell.

Secondly, I would like to look at the suffix ‘gate’. Since the days of Richard Nixon and

the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, the suffix ‘gate’ has been combined with the names

of individuals involved in scandal to give a name to the scandal in question. Clark (1993)

when referring to Watergate wrote “But ever since then, for some reason, the last four

letters of Watergate have become a synonym for scandal.” A number of examples spring

to mind. ‘Irangate’, ‘Dianagate’, and ‘Monicagate’. The use of this suffix often implies

wrongdoing on the part of the person named, however, it can also mean that the

individual was just caught up in or implicated in a particular situation. I think my earlier

quote from Maxwell (2004) is equally valid in that minor scandals will be forgotten, other

will come and go and perhaps only the ones that rock nations will be remembered with

the ‘gate’ suffix. Almost 20 years ago though, some journalists (Clark, 1993) were

already observing that ‘gate’ was a tired suffix that lacked creativity and was too readily

used by writers who wanted to hint at a scandal but stop short of using that word.

Another comment suggesting that the ‘gate’ suffix is being overused came from Maxwell

(2004) when she wrote “Watergate, has been used so productively in coinages

describing scandals (e.g.: Whitewatergate, Dianagate, Irangate, etc) that the noun

Gatemania has been coined to refer to its overuse!”

Finally, I would say that as the ‘ism’ and ‘gate’ suffixes are associated with the names of

people who become the subject of media attention, they will continue to be the source of

popular neologisms for a long time to come.

References

Clark, J. C. (1993). ‘Gate’ – A Tired Label For Scandals. Available at

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1993-01-10/news/9301100586_1_scandal-teapot-

dome-watergate. [Accessed 23rd October 2011].

Maxwell, K. (2004). New word of the month. Available at

http://www.macmillandictionaries.com/MED-Magazine/June2004/20-New-Word-

Delia.htm. [Accessed 23rd October 2011].