About ご[馳走]{ちそう}: two “runs” would give you “a feast”?


`ご[馳走様]{ちそうさま}でした` is the greeting that people say after being offered a meal
while `ご馳走` by itself means “a feast”.

I looked up this word in the dictionary to learn more about the kanji
characters. It turned out that both `馳` and `走` have the meaning of “run”, or
more specifically `馳` is “to gallop” and `走` is “to run”.

So how come two “run” kanji characters give the meaning of “a feast”? Would
anyone explain the etymology of the word?

P.S. `ご` is just a prefix you add to a noun to make it sound more polite.




The original meaning is not a feast. 馳走 means to prepare food and treat
guests, and also to run around doing a bunch of stuff. ご馳走 means that someone
has worked hard and treated their guests well.




The original meaning is not a feast. 馳走 means to prepare food and treat
guests, and also to run around doing a bunch of stuff. ご馳走 means that someone
has worked hard and treated their guests well.

