Monday, January 21, 2013

Things change, stay the same

Did you know that back in the 19th century people used to add “-loo” to the end of a word to signify a scandal in the same way they add “-gate” to the end of a word now. E.g. Bountygate would have been Bountyloo back then, Nipplegate would have been Nippleloo and Climategate would have been Climateloo. The "loo" suffix came from Waterloo just like the “-gate” suffix comes from Watergate. What are the chances that the root for both suffixes would be "Water"? I would say very low.


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