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 individuals name to describe that persons 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-teapotdome-watergate. [Accessed 23rd October 2011]. Maxwell, K. (2004). New word of the month. Available at http://www.macmillandictionaries.com/MED-Magazine/June2004/20-New-WordDelia.htm. [Accessed 23rd October 2011].