-gate

A scandal, especially a political one.

The second part of Watergate, the Washington office building containing the national headquarters of the Democratic Party, which was burgled in 1972.

The impact of Watergate was so great that the word became a model for many other words that describe a scandal associated with politics. Most examples are short-lived, but a few that refer to particularly significant events have survived, such as Irangate and Contragate (in reference to covert sales of arms by the USA to Iran and use of the proceeds to aid the Contras in Nicaragua).