ごちそうさま
ごちそうさま
hepburn gochisousama
thank you for the meal (after eating)
Part of speech · expression
Pattern visualization
no decomposition available
Examples
- ごちそうさまでした。Thank you for the meal (after eating).
- お母さん、今日もごちそうさま。Thanks for dinner today, mom.
Collocations
ごちそうさま (gochisousama, "thanks for the feast" — after meal)ごちそうさまでした (polite past form)ご馳走 (gochisou, feast)いただきます (pre-meal greeting)お料理 (oryouri, dish)
Mnemonic
ごちそうさま gochisousama — ご (honorific) + 馳走 (chisou, dashing about) + さま (polite suffix). Literal etymology: "[thank you for all the] running around (to prepare this meal)". In old Japan, hosting a guest meant riding to fetch ingredients; 馳走 came to stand metonymically for hospitality itself. Same root: 馳せる (haseru, to gallop / dash). Settled as the post-meal greeting — the word embeds Japanese hospitality (おもてなし) culture in its labor consciousness.
Quick check
Original action denoted by the 馳走 kanji in ごちそうさま?