suffix attached to any word to indicate "scandal involving," 1973, abstracted from Watergate, the Washington, D.C., building complex, home of the National Headquarters of the Democratic Party when it was burglarized June 17, 1972, by operatives later found to be working for the staff and re-election campaign of U.S. President Richard Nixon.
An exposed affair of corruption, venality, etc, of the sort indicated: Allengate/ Billygate/ Koreagate/ Lancegate/ Irangate
[1970s+; fr the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s]