Meanings
- A controversy of 2013 in which a woman at a technology conference took offense on overhearing an apparently ribald joke involving the word dongle and published the two men's photographs on the Internet in an attempt to shame them, causing one to be fired from his job.
With Donglegate she pointlessly robbed that man of his employment. She degraded his masculinity. And so the community responded by degrading her femininity.
2015, Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed2 more examples
The interaction, now referred to as “Donglegate,” resulted in one of the males being fired by his company. Richards herself became the target of hate, threats, and a denial-of-service attack on her website.
2014, Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, Gender & Pop Culture: A Text-Reader, page 182The bigger the so-called Donglegate story became, the more disproportionate and unfair Richards' original tweet seemed, even if that level of exposure was never her intent.
2016, Stephen McDonald, William Salomone, Sonia Gutierrez, The Writer's Response: A Reading-Based Approach to Writing
Origin
Cite this entry
Donglegate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Donglegate
“Donglegate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Donglegate. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Donglegate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Donglegate.
Source: Donglegate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.