In old English, it meant something like "contention" or "strife. When you think about "for the cause of" or "for the case of," it's not difficult to see how we get to "for the sake of" as early as the 13th century in English. By the 14th century, exclamations that some people may find to be a bit taboo start to turn up.
Things like "for God's sake" and "for heaven's sake. By now, you're probably putting together some theories about how Pete shows up in all of this, but hold that thought for just a minute. Michael, and appears to be a euphemism for "for the love of God. But why Pete? We don't know for sure, but some speculate that "for pity's sake," which was already in the language, may have helped it catch on. As Curzan points out though, "for peace sake" was also in the language, and it's not a difficult leap from "peace" to "Pete.
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