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shameless pleading

 

 

 

 

Billingsgate

Good thing fish don’t have ears.

Dear Word Detective: Doing a crossword puzzle, I ran into the word “billingsgate” as the answer for the clue “abusive language.” Never having heard this use of “-gate” (as in “public scandal”) among Watergate, Billygate, etc., I looked it up at Merriam-Webster.com. Sure enough, there it was with origin: “Gate and fish market, London, England. First usage 1652.” I was under the impression that Watergate (as a scandal) got its name from Watergate hotel and the other “-gate” words followed the pattern. How does “billingsgate” relate to these other usages?  Was there some really wild fish-fight at this London market? — Gary.

Fish fight! Fish fight! Speaking of fish fights, I’m a fan of the Animal Planet network show “Whale Wars,” in which members of the Sea Shepherd conservation organization try to stop whalers from whaling on the whales. I mentioned the show to someone a few weeks ago, and it became apparent that they had never watched it at least in part because they assumed it was a sort of cetacean “Fight Club,” with whales fighting each other, or something. I suppose such a thing is possible. After all, Moby Dick is just the story of a whale nursing a grudge.

I had to look up “Billygate” to be certain I remembered what it was, and while I vaguely knew President Jimmy Carter’s brother had been accused of influence-peddling, I didn’t recall  that he had actually been paid pots of money by Libya. He should have stuck with Billy Beer. “Billygate” took place in 1978, which wasn’t that long after the Watergate scandal (named after a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters at the hotel in 1972) had led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, so the name made sense to most people. (“Watergate” is a venerable English term for something, such as a floodgate, that either controls the flow of a stream or river or controls access to it, and the hotel was so named because it overlooks the Potomac River.)

But in the decades since, “gate” has blossomed into quasi-journalistic shorthand for “possible scandal” or “someone says something’s fishy here” or “my dog barks at the TV when that guy’s name is mentioned.” So now we get “Troopergate,” “Travelgate,” “Memogate,” “Gatecrashergate,” “Poodlegate,” ad nauseam, and a new “gate” every week. (Originally I thought I had made up Poodlegate, but it turns out to exist, and involves Al Gore’s thighs. Eww.) William Safire, who was working in the Nixon White House when Watergate erupted, subsequently took great joy in coining “gate” terms in his newspaper columns, and in 1988 he noted that his favorite creation, referring to a minor accounting dustup, was “doublebillingsgate.”

None of this, however, has anything to do with “billingsgate” meaning “abusive language.” “Billingsgate” is the name of one of the gates that originally controlled access to the city of London (“Billing” being the proper name of the builder of the gate). The Billingsgate area lies on the North bank of the River Thames, and Billingsgate was originally a “watergate,” affording access from London to the river for cargo and passengers. The most notable feature of Billingsgate, however, was the fish market established there in the 17th century, known for its chaotic atmosphere and the loud and raucous cries and shouts of its fishmongers. Apparently the shouting went well beyond the norm for a sales pitch, and Billingsgate became famous for the vituperative profanity that filled the air on a typical day, giving us “billingsgate” as a colorful term for foul and abusive language.

Lest you be picturing this sort of swearing contest as a purely male pursuit, it’s worth noting that many of the fish merchants in markets such as Billingsgate were women known as “fishwives” (“wife” being used here in the then-common generic sense of “woman,” especially one of the lower classes). Their ability to match the men in volume and profanity lives on in the phrase “to swear like a fishwife.”

4 comments to Billingsgate

  • Nancy

    The mention of Billingsgate, brought to mind some regency history and went to this site http://www.georgianindex.net/Prinny/prinnys_set.html
    for the following quote:

    “Richard Barry the 7th Earl of Barrymore (1769-1793), the eldest son, bore the nickname of Hellgate for his wild behavior. His brother the Hon. Henry Barry (1770-1823), who became the 8th Earl of Barrymore on his brother’s death, was dubbed Cripplegate since he limped, probably due to a club foot. The Hon. and Rev. Augustus Barry (1773-1818), even less reputable than the other two, was known as Newgate, for he had been a tenant of every gaol in the kingdom save that one. The eldest, a sister, Lady Caroline(1768-?), who became Lady Melfort in 1788, from her ready and copious use of oaths received from the lips from the Prince Regent the sobriquet of Billingsgate.”

  • At one point you indicate a “watergate” is a term used to control the flow of water. Yet I thought it was the “gate” from a castle or fortification that allowed access to whatever water was nearby (river, moat, etc.)

    Then later you indicate Billingsgate was a “water gate” because it allowed access for people and freight from London to the Thames.

    Er….watergate – a access point for people or a plumbing device? Or both?

  • John

    “Billingsgate” has another potential background. In the north of England there are a LOT of -gates in towns like York. And, the original York walls stand, and a lot of those -gates do not connect with an opening. However, they were controlled by the vikings, those rascally people. In Norwegian, “gate”, pronounced ga-teh, is nothing more than a street. So a lot of those gates in England are nothing more than streets by a different name; if this applied to this particular locale, it would mean Billings Street.

    [Curious sidebar: In Norwegian, the word gift (pronounced yift) can mean either marriage or poison.]

  • The Watergate Hotel not only overlooks the river, it is adjacent to the watergate where Rock Creek empties into the Potomac River and where the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal reached the river.

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