Etymology: Old English sacu strong feminine = Old Frisian sake , seke affair, thing, sake, Old Saxon saka lawsuit, enmity, guilt, thing (Middle Low German, Middle Dutch sake lawsuit, affair, cause, reason, guilt, Dutch zaak lawsuit, cause, sake, thing), Old High German sahha cause, sake, thing (Middle High German sach(e , German sache thing, affair), Old Norse sǫk crime, accusation, action at law, cause, sake (Swedish sak , Danish sag in the same senses; also, influenced by German, thing) < Germanic *sakā , related to the strong verb *sak- , represented by Old English sacan to quarrel, fight, claim at law, accuse, Old Saxon sakan to accuse, Old High German sahhan to strive, quarrel, rebuke. From the same root are Old English sæc , sæcc ( < *sakjā ), Gothic sakjô ( < *sakjōn ), strife. An ablaut-variant of Germanic *sak- is probably the *sōk- represented by seek v., see for the cognates outside Germanic. The only use surviving in modern English (‘for the sake of’) has not been found in Old English, and was probably adopted < Old Norse. It existed, however, in Old High German and Old Frisian, and there is a possibility that it may have been in Old English, though not evidenced in the literature. It seems to have arisen from the use of the noun to denote a litigant's cause or case (see 1). Compare Latin causā (see cause n.).

Etymology: Shortened < forsake v.