Re: TAN: new words [was: RE: LONG: Latest Wenetaic Stuff]

Quoth Nik Taylor:
> Tom Wier wrote:
> > On a related note, some Cable channel in these parts has been
> > advertising a new series of programs dedicated to John Wayne on
> > Wednesday, and call it "John Waynesday".
>
> Well, that's more a pun than a -gate type coining.  Altho it seems to me
> that the -gate thing started out as a pun.  I believe Whitewatergate was
> the first, which, if so, would've been a simple pun based on Watergate.
> Then, once that word existed, -gate came to be a suffix.
>
> Reminds me of -peat in colloquial usage, as in "4-peat champions"
> ("four-time champions").  Origin:
> Repeat -> Threepeat (pun)
> Threepeat -> Fourpeat (reanalysis of -peat as suffix)
I've not yet heard fourpeat, but threepeat was coined in '93 when the
Chicago Bulls (basketball team) won their third championship in a row.
Pat Riley trademarked it. ;\  Furthermore, I don't remember what was
said when they won their fourth, but the tagline on their fifth and
sixth were "five golden rings" and "repeat threepeat", respectively.  I
suppose, though, that it wouldn't surprise me too much to start seeing
-peat as a regular suffix (multipeat? fewpeat? the possibilities are
endless... :)

--
-=-Don Blaheta-=-=-dpb@cs.brown.edu-=-=-<http://www.cs.brown.edu/~dpb/>-=-
"It was a case of 'I'd like to meet the guy who invented sex and see
what he's working on now' paraphrased appropriately...  did I just
compare going backwards in the pager to sex?"                   --,dunc