Where does the saying (For crying out loud) come from?

Answer 1

Hey- good question! I had no idea, so I looked up the answer for you. Here it is:

Minced Oaths

The English, being a restrained lot, have a long list of euphemistic phrases, many of which became part of the language before it spread to other parts of the world. The root cause of these is a wish to communicate without being explicit. This is something the English are particularly fond of, hence their long tradition of double-entendre comedy.

Euphemisms aren't all from the distant past though. For every Shakesperian 'beast with two backs' there's a 20th century 'knee trembler'.

Minced oaths are a sub-group of euphemisms used to avoid swearing when expressing surprise or annoyance. If you hit your thumb with a hammer when great aunt Edith is in the room what do you say? It's probably going to be a minced oath. Shakespeare might have resorted to 'gadzooks' (God's hooks - referring to the nails in the cross), we might try 'shoot' or 'freaking heck'.

They are usually, although not exclusively, religious in nature and date from the days when it wasn't acceptable to use the name of God, Jesus or other religious notables in everyday speech. To mince your words, or mince matters, means to choose words so as not to offend anyone. Some example are 'Jiminy Cricket' (Jesus Christ), 'dagnamit' (God damn it'), 'for Pete's sake' (for St. Peter's sake).

It's interesting that, while we continue to generate new euphemisms, new minced oaths are few and far between. Perhaps that's because, while there are still taboos about discussing death, disability, homosexuality etc, the restrictions on swearing out loud when surprised or annoyed have slackened somewhat.

There are many examples:

Bejabbers --> By Jesus
Bleeding heck --> Bloody Hell
Blimey --> Blind me
By golly --> By God's body
By gosh --> By God
By Jove --> By God
Crikey --> Christ
Criminy --> Christ
Dagnabbit --> God damn it
Dagnammit --> God damn it
Dang --> Damn
Dangnabbit --> God damn it
Doggone --> God damn
Drat --> God rot it
Egad --> A God
Flaming heck --> ******* Hell
Flipping heck --> ******* Hell
For crying out loud --> For Christ's sake

Answer 2

Women who cry with their mouths open.