What is the meaning of the phrase "Land Sakes"?
In a children's story I was reading the other day, one of the characters said
"Land Sakes"
...from the context of the story, it must be to indicate they are surprised?
It was completely foreign to me and I just generally wanted to know more about it
It's a euphemism for "Lord Sakes", which is itself a non-grammatical corruption of "for the Lord's sake!"
It can be pretty amusing to observe the lengths to which people will go to avoid blasphemy, while still expressing their strong feelings on a subject...