Etymology of ごちそうさまでした > **Possible Duplicate:** > [About []{}: two “runs” would give you “a feast”?]( gochisousamadeshita · expression: That was a delicious meal (said after meals); What a wonderful meal (lit. You were a Feast (preparer)) Is the literal translation here accurate, and is there a longer phrase that preceded this contemporary one?

The says, the term "feast" has its origin in the fact that in order to prepare a feast, the host would have to dispatch horses in order to get all the ingredients.

As for the literal translation, I would say that is not a suffix for a person (like , etc.), but closer to the meaning of . (Same for , , .) So that the phrase translates, also literally, to

>
> It was a feast.

The phrase dates back only to the latter half of the Edo period. Before that, the phrase was used in the sense of "Sorry for the inconvenience/Thank you for your troubles".