Origins
The word 'gate' is a native Germanic term that has been in English since the earliest recorded period. It derives from Old English 'geat' (with the plural 'gatu'), meaning a gate, door, or opening in a wall or enclosure. The Old English form descends from Proto-Germanic *gatą, which traces to the PIE root *gʰed-, meaning 'an opening' or 'a gap.'
The original sense of the word was not the barrier itself but the opening it fills. A 'gate' was first and foremost a gap — a break in a wall, fence, or hedge — and only secondarily the hinged structure that closes it. This gap-first, barrier-second semantic ordering is characteristic of several Germanic architectural terms and reflects a practical reality: openings in enclosures existed before purpose-built closures.
Within the Germanic family, cognates include Old Norse 'gat' (hole, opening), Dutch 'gat' (hole, gap), and German 'Gasse' (lane, narrow street — originally a gap between buildings). The Norse cognate is particularly important for English because it contributed a second layer of meaning. In the areas of England settled by Scandinavians — the Danelaw — Old Norse 'gata' (road, way, path) became a common element in street names. Cities like York preserve dozens of these names: Stonegate (stone road), Petergate (Peter's road), Micklegate (great road), Coppergate (cup-makers' road), and Kirkgate (church road). These '-gate' street names have nothing etymologically to do with gates as barriers; they refer to roads.
Old English Period
The Old English plural 'gatu' is noteworthy because it gave rise to a common medieval English place-name element. Many town names containing '-gate' or '-yatt' reflect old plural forms: Margate (pool gate), Ramsgate (raven's gate), and Sandgate (sandy gate) all contain the Old English word.
In the political lexicon, the suffix '-gate' has taken on an entirely new function since the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. The Watergate complex itself was named for its location near the literal water gate where the Potomac Canal once entered the Tidal Basin. After President Nixon's downfall, journalists began appending '-gate' to any political scandal: Irangate, Monicagate, Climategate, and many others. This productive suffix has even been borrowed into other languages (German has used '-gate' for scandals), making it one of the most successful English neologisms of the twentieth century.
The word has generated numerous compounds over the centuries. 'Gateway' (the passage through a gate) dates from the fourteenth century and has acquired the figurative meaning of 'entry point' or 'means of access' — a gateway drug, a gateway to success. 'Gatekeeper' (one who guards a gate) is fifteenth-century and has become a standard metaphor for anyone who controls access to something. 'Gatehouse' (a building over or beside a gate) reflects medieval castle architecture. 'Gatecrasher' (one who enters without invitation) dates from the 1920s. 'Tailgate' originally meant the rear gate of a wagon and has spawned the American cultural practice of 'tailgating' — grilling food from the open tailgate of a truck at sporting events.
Modern Legacy
The word's phonological development from Old English 'geat' to modern 'gate' is regular. The Old English diphthong 'ea' (pronounced approximately as /æa/) simplified to /a/ in Middle English and then lengthened to /aː/, which the Great Vowel Shift raised to the modern /eɪ/ diphthong. Middle English also had the variant 'yate' (with an initial palatal glide), common in southern dialects, which persisted into early Modern English but eventually gave way to the 'g-' form.