当我们表示愤怒、恼怒、生气、惊讶时，我们会说for Pete’s sake，for the love of Pete。
When it comes to devising ways to convey outrage or frustration without offending any delicate and/or pious ears, human creativity knows no bounds. There’s 30 Rock’s “Blurgh,” Castle’s “Shut the front door,” and other fictional TV curses.
当我们想要在表达愤怒的同时又避免冒犯到任何脆弱和/或虔诚的人，我们会开动脑筋将其委婉地表达出来。我们表达愤怒的词语有《我为喜剧狂》中的“Blurgh”，《灵书妙探》中的“Shut the front door”（Shut the fuck up的委婉表达，表示震惊、不相信）以及其他电视剧中表示愤怒的委婉表达。
Compared to those colorful examples, for Pete’s sake—a milder version of for God’s sake or for Christ’s sake that doesn’t violate any of the Ten Commandments—sounds a little dull. But it does carry a certain element of mystery: Who the heck is Pete?
与上面这些丰富多彩的例子相比，for pete’s sake是for God’s sake或for Christ’s sake更加委婉的表达方法，这样的表达不会违反《十诫》中的任何规定。For pete’s sake听起来有点无聊，但是却也激发起了我们的好奇心：谁是Pete？
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first written instance of for Pete’s sake is from 1903, with for the love of Pete appearing around the same time. By that point, as NPR’s Michigan Radio reports, for the love of Mike had already been in the English lexicon for at least a couple of decades. Since Mike is thought to have been a nod to St. Michael—and the phrases clearly have a religious connection—some have suggested that the mononymous Pete is really St. Peter.
根据《牛津英语词典》，for Pete’s sake的表达首次出现在1903年，而for the love of Pete也大约在同一时间出现。这时，正如NPR 密歇根电台所介绍的，for the love of Mike已经在英语词汇中存在有至少数十年了。由于人们认为Mike是对圣迈克尔（Saint Michael）的敬称-所以这个表达显然带有宗教含义-有些人就表示同名的Pete应该就是圣彼得（Saint Pete）。
But without any actual evidence to support that conclusion, it’s also possible that Pete wasn’t a person at all. For pity’s sake has been around since the 17th century; and its predecessor, for pity, dates all the way back to the 15th century. As Michael Quinion pointed out on his World Wide Words blog, clever cursers may have just chosen Pete because it sounds a little like pity. Pete’s sake sounds even more like peace sake—a phrase that popped up sometime during the 19th century.
由于这一结论没有任何实际证据，所以Pete也可能根本就不是一个人。For pity’s sake大约在17世纪出现；而其前身，for pity，则可以追溯至15世纪。Michael Quinion在《世界词汇》博客中指出，聪明的骂人者可能是因为Pete听上去有点像Pity，所以就选择了Pete。Pete’s sake听上去更像peace sake-这个短语在19世纪也会偶尔出现。
In short, we can’t be sure who Pete was, if he was anyone.
总之，如果Pete是一个人，那么我们无法确定他是谁。所以，随着时间的流逝，大家逐渐用Pete来代表God并用For Pete’s Sake和for the love of Pete来委婉表达自己的情感。
原文：Mental Floss 编辑&翻译：Sarah
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