land sakes
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- for land's sake / for land's sake alive / for land's sakes / for land's sakes alive
- for the land's sake / for the land's sake alive / for the land's sakes / for the land's sakes alive
- land sake / land sake alive / land sakes alive
- land's sake / land's sake alive / land's sakes / land's sakes alive
Etymology edit
(minced oath) Lord’s sakes
Interjection edit
- (chiefly US, somewhat dated and rustic) An expression of surprise or dismay.
- 1886, Horatio Alger, chapter 28, in Helping Himself:
- "Land sakes! I don't keep a boardin' house!"
- 1912, Victor Appleton, chapter 31, in Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble:
- Well, as soon as Alice finished singing, land sakes! goodness, gracious me! if a big fox didn't pop out from behind a tree.
- 1983 June 19, Philip Shenon, “For Homesick Mississippians, a Day Full of Grits and Grins”, in New York Times, retrieved 3 November 2015:
- The fourth annual “Way Up North in Mississippi” picnic was well under way in Central Park yesterday. . . . There were twangy cries of “land sakes” and “don't that beat all” and choruses of “hi, y'all.”
- 2015, Lori Copeland, My Heart Stood Still, →ISBN, page 41:
- “One of the McDougal young'uns? Well, land sakes—haven't seen you in a coon's age.”