sake

Etymology 1

From Middle English sake (“sake, cause”), from Old English sacu (“cause, lawsuit, legal action, complaint, issue, dispute”), from Proto-West Germanic *saku, from Proto-Germanic *sakō (“affair, thing, charge, accusation, matter”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to investigate”). Akin to West Frisian saak (“cause; business”), Low German Saak, Dutch zaak (“matter; cause; business”), German Sache (“thing; matter; cause; legal cause”), Danish sag, Swedish and Norwegian sak, Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌾𐍉 (sakjō, “dispute, argument”), Old English sōcn (“inquiry, prosecution”), Old English sēcan (“to seek”). More at soke, soken, seek.

noun

1. cause, interest or account
   For the sake of argument
2. purpose or end; reason
   For old times' sake
3. the benefit or regard of someone or something
   2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 242a-b. But it will be for your sake that we'll undertake to refute this thesis, […]
4. (obsolete except in phrases) contention, strife; guilt, sin, accusation or charge
   And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Genesis, 3:17

Etymology 2

noun

1. Alternative spelling of saké