also: ざあます
auxiliary verb
Archaic polite auxiliary verb equivalent to modern です or でございます. Used in historical or stylized speech, often associated with older upper-class or geisha language.
「そうざますか」と、彼女は古風な口調で尋ねた。
"Is that so?" she asked in an old-fashioned tone.
時代劇では、お嬢様が「よろしゅうざます」と言うことがある。
In period dramas, a young lady might say "yoroshū zamasu" (that would be fine).
Derived from であります (de arimasu) through contraction and sound change, becoming a polite auxiliary verb used primarily in the Edo period and early modern Japanese, especially in feminine speech.