Petes sake (english)

It's certainly used in the United States, usually with "for" (and spelled with an apostrophe): For Pete's sake! I think it's a euphemism for "God's sake" or "Christ's sake" which some people would consider blasphemous.

There is also "for the love of Pete." Some sources suggest both are from St. Peter.

I've also heard "for the love of Mike."

It is also spoken in Australia; and i would think that zigzag's assumption would be correct.

I had to find out the correct way of writing this expression just a few days ago.

"for Pete’s sake"

Is what I came up with - capital P and apostrophe. I have no idea why some people write "Sake" with capital S.

Hopefully nobody is going to tell me that I was wrong...

It's used to show anger and/or frustration.

Imagine your boss asks you to work on Saturday. Next weekend you are asked again to work on Saturday. The following Friday you haven't been asked and believe that you will finally get a good rest this weekend. It's five o'clock and you are just walking out the door when your boss calls to you "Oh, by the way, could you work tomorrow?"

"Oh for Pete's sake!" you whisper under your breath.

cute scenario, count zero.

Office Space? I don't think many people would say "oh, for Petes sake". Sht or Fk would b more likely. followed by "Um, I didn't tell you before but my Dr says I have SARS -- actually I won't be in next week". I still would prefer to hear some one say "for Pete's sake" rather than "for F*k's sake. I think that it does refer back to St Peter. -- "Will you do this for Peter?"

For Bab's Sake!

A reference to St. Peter would to some extent defeat the purpose, that purpose being as zZigzZag said to avoid swearing oaths. Aside from the fact that no one has said anything like "By St. Peter!" in English since the Middle Ages.

(Don't tell me that bloody comes from "by Our Lady!" It doesn't.)

The OED gives the first citiation of for Pete's saek as 1924, but a poster to the American Dialect Society forum found

10 May 1915, EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER (Edwardsville, Illinois), pg.2, col. 5:
"For Pete's sake! Much of the back porch?" gasped Mr. Townsend.

10 October 1923, CHRONICLE-TELEGRAM (Elyria, Ohio), pg.3, col. 2:
"For Pete's sake," Dick growled, "don't begin any of that imitation trained nurse dope!"

The same poster said <blockquote>Quote
<hr> It's clearly related to "for the love of Mike" and "for the love of Pete," which we have from the 1890s. It's a euphemism for "Heaven" or "God," for heaven's sake.<hr></blockquote>Michael Quinon says that the St. Peter origin is folk etymology. <blockquote>Quote
<hr>In this case, we’re not totally without ideas. One clue is that another version of the exclamation is for the love of Pete, which seems to be slightly older (it’s recorded in print from 1918). In turn that reminds us of for the love of Mike, which is older still, from the 1880s. This last expression seems to have been a euphemistic cry to replace for the love of God, which is known from the early eighteenth century as an irritated exclamation. Another well-known exclamation, for pity’s sake, seems likely to have been an influence on the choice of Pete.
As a result, at some point around 1918, Pete joined Mike as the person to invoke when you were impatient, annoyed, frustrated or disappointed in someone or something, both men being stand-ins for the God that it would be blasphemous to mention.<hr></blockquote>Some sources trace love of Mike to "19th C. Irish" but I can't find many details. One source says <blockquote>Quote
<hr>British etymologist Adrian Room, in his 1999 revision of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, suggests that "the expression may have evolved among Irish Roman Catholics as a euphemism for 'For the love of Christ.'"<hr></blockquote>But it's a paid subscription to read the rest of the article. The author of the article refuted another supposed etymology <blockquote>Quote
<hr>The expression "for the love of Mike" is not Canadian and is probably 600 to 800 years old!

Believe me, it did NOT originate at Mike the Bookie's Newsstand in Edmonton. I don't believe the newsstand would have been operating 600 years ago. That would make Mike one hell of an old bookie. I mean, Jeepers Creepers, Shakespeare himself could have been into Mike for a couple of Gs.<hr></blockquote>