Elsagate

E1L1S1A1G2A1T1E1

proper noun

The controversy surrounding supposedly child-friendly videos posted on the Internet that contain themes inappropriate for children, such as violence and sexual situations.

OriginEnglish Watergatebf. ← Middle English water ← Old English wæter →
Scrabble 9
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Meanings

proper noun
  1. InternetneologismThe controversy surrounding supposedly child-friendly videos posted on the Internet that contain themes inappropriate for children, such as violence and sexual situations.

    Videos that are in the Elsagate category are not hard to identify. Typically, they feature Spiderman^([sic]) and Elsa together and are extremely low-budget videos without much structure or plot.

    2019 August 2, Sherri Gordon, “Keeping Your Child Safe on YouTube After Elsagate”, in Verywell Family, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2020
    1 more example

    Just a few months after the Pizzagate debacle, Elsagate was formed with a very similar playbook: a group of amateur sleuths using open-source intelligence to fight a hazily defined evil threatening helpless children.

    2017 December 8, Russell Brandom, “Inside Elsagate, the conspiracy-fueled war on creepy YouTube kids videos”, in The Verge, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2017

Origin

  1. EnglishElsa
  2. Proto-Indo-European*wed-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*wódr̥
  4. Proto-Germanic*watōr
  5. Proto-West Germanic*watar
  6. Old Englishwæter
  7. Middle Englishwater
  8. Englishwater
  9. Englishgate
  10. Englishhotel
  11. EnglishWatergate Hotel
  12. EnglishWatergatebf.
  13. EnglishElsagate

From Elsa + -gate, after the protagonist of Disney's 2013 animated film Frozen whose likeness often appears in the videos.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 艾莎門 /艾莎门
  • 艾莎門 /艾莎门 (Àishāmén)Internet controversy
Indonesian Elsagate
  • ElsagateInternet controversy
Japanese エルサゲート
  • エルサゲート (Erusagēto)Internet controversy
Korean 엘사게이트
  • 엘사게이트 (Elsageiteu)Internet controversy
Malay Elsagate
  • ElsagateInternet controversy
Portuguese Elsagate
  • ElsagateInternet controversy
Russian Элсагейт
  • Элсагейт (Elsagejt)Internet controversy
Spanish Elsagate
  • ElsagateInternet controversy

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

stealage
Cite this entry
APA

Elsagate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Elsagate

MLA

“Elsagate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Elsagate. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Elsagate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Elsagate.

Source: Elsagate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.