Question about ます

[chryuop]

I have always being curious about the meaning of the polite auxiliary.
I have managed to find out that after many changes of form, ます originated from まらする. Problem is that this verb is no longer on dictionaries. The only one that was giving a translation of まらする was Yahoo Japan dictionary.
There it says まらする means やる・差し上げる.

Now it might sound a stupid question. Was ます originally used "outwards" to make it polite? I mean, both やる・差し上げる have a movement away from the speaker, so I was wondering if the original meaning of ます was to make humble and then enlarged to a more general politeness (inward and outward).

I hope I made clear what I meant, I re-read it and it sounds kinda messy...sorry

[masaegu]

I did some research myself and there seem to be some theories regarding this. The one that appears to be most supported by linguists is as follows:

まらする originally had three usages:
1. Humble form of "to give". (present-day 差し上げる)
2. Humble form of "to say" or "to ask". 　(present-day 申し上げる and お～～いたす, respectively)
3. Polite affirmation. (present-day ます)

Around 12 - 16th century, Usage #1 disappeared and around 16 - 17th centuries, Usage #2 disappeared. Currently, only Usage #3 has remained though the word has changed its form to ます.

Not much info, I know, though. I'm completely new to this myself.

[chryuop]

Thank you very much...it is a lot of info. Sorry if I bothered with this curiosity, but the more I study the language the more I get curious about the story of some words. I already know I will end up buying some book about classic Japanese

The most I had got about ます was that it meant to give and that in time it changed from まらするー＞まるするー＞まっするー＞まっす・まする ー＞ます So as you can see you got more info than I was able to You rock as always.