Re: literal meaning of sumimasen?

From: Sean Holland (seanholland_at_pants.telus.net)
Date: 09/01/04 

Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 01:22:28 GMT

in article Y%wYc.55889$S55.24778@clgrps12, Travers Naran at
tnaran@no-more-virii-please.direct.ca wrote on 8/29/04 8:18 PM:

> Collin McCulley wrote:
>>
>> No, you've got the right tree. It comes from the "sumu" written
>> 済む, "to finish, to be completed". "sumimasen" as a set expression though
>> is rarely written with the kanji. Anyway, this gives an idiomatic
>> idea of something along the lines of "my debt to you (or whatever) will
>> never end", or some such, but you can more or less forget that and just
>> treat it as the set expression that it is.
>
> Kind of like the way "please" in English came from (approx.) "If it pleases
> you."

Or goodbye came from god be with ye. 

---
pantsseanholland@telus.pants.net Remove pants to email me.

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