Etymology of いらっしゃいませ

[charusu]

Good Evening Friends,

I'm doing a bit of reading about honorifics. I see that いらっしゃる is the honorific form of 行く、来る、and 居る - with いらっしゃいます being the non-past ます form, I am curious as to how いらっしゃいませ came about. It's obviously not the plain imperative, nor is it the polite imperative - I can't figure it out - any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Toritoribe]

That's actually the imperative form of ます. ませ is only used with honorifics (e.g. いらっしゃいませ, なさいませ, くださいませ).

 

[charusu]

Thank you Toritoribe! So it's a conjugation of a conjugation?

 

[Toritoribe]

The conjugation suffixes る/れる(potential), れる/られる(passive), せる/させる(causative) or たい also conjugate as a verb or adjective, don't they?;-)
Incidentally, ます is from a classical humble verb 参らす.

まいらする(the adnominal form) --> まらする --> まるする --> まっする --> まする --> ます

 

[charusu]

That's going to take a while to sink in - thanks!