074 / 308
ごちそうさま gochisousama
Thanks, that was a feast.
What does gochisousama mean?
The bookend to itadakimasu, said when you put your chopsticks down. Also the perfect deadpan reply when a couple gets too sweet in front of you.
Example
おいしかった、ごちそうさま。
That was delicious — thank you for the meal.
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Safe to use Fine in ordinary conversation.
The story behind gochisousama
Look inside the polite wrapping and there is a verb galloping about. Chisou is written with characters meaning to run and to rush, because feeding a guest properly once meant riding around gathering the fish, the vegetables, the good rice. The word for feast is literally the host's legwork. Add go at the front and sama at the back and you are thanking someone for all that running.
Said with chopsticks down at the end of a meal, it closes the bracket that itadakimasu opened, and people say it to empty rooms and to convenience store lunches too. It has one gloriously dry second life: when a couple gets too sweet in front of you, gochisousama means enough, I am full.
Get gochisousama in your pocket
ごちそうさま is one of 308 words in YABAI, a Japanese culture snack for Android. Every word comes with its meaning, an example sentence, a vibe check and a story like the one above — in 13 languages, read aloud by your device. Paid app: no ads, no sign-up, no subscription.
