Hello, everyone. I have a question and I thought maybe a grammar buff here could help me.
So, I have the following sentence from my isekai novel:
異端地獄：異端に傾倒せしものの地獄。
I understand it overall, but the せし confuses me. What does it mean exatly? I looked it up and a Japanese person said it means した, the past form of する. If that’s right, can someone tell me the implications of using this form?
Thank you in advance!
1 Like
According to this explanation, it’s old grammar:
I don’t understand all the details of the explanation but maybe it helps you?
3 Likes
Pretty sure this is classical grammar. Basically you just need to know it’s a form for turning the verb into something that can modify the noun that comes after. But not in modern grammar.
3 Likes
Thank you. So it really meant した. Considering novels like to dust off all kinds of Kanji and now this, doesn’t surprise me.
1 Like
Yes, I’m acquainted with how nouns can be modified, it was just that tiny piece of grammar that irked me.
Thank you! 
I just meant that while it does represent the past tense, it’s only used for modification, not as past tense at the end of a clause or something. Classical grammar has that in a few places, where the sentence terminal form and the modifier form are not the same. Modern grammar, on the other hand, basically always allows them to be the same as each other.
2 Likes
Oh, wait, that’s really good to know. Thank you. Though I will refrain from using such grammar until I feel more confident.
As others have mentioned, this is an example of archaic (or at least quite old) grammar; the -し suffix.
You’ll probably mostly see as part of a handful of set expressions (such as 選ばれし者, “the chosen one”), or used artistically to give off an archaic/important vibe (such as 封印されしエクゾディア, “Exodia the Forbidden One”).
I’ll confess, I only know about it from thinking too much about Yu-Gi-Oh 
3 Likes
This was a very helpful comment. Thank you!
2 Likes
Aww, shucks
Well, you know what they say: “Watching the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh over and over again is the most efficient way to learn Japanese according to science.”
2 Likes
I might keep asking questions if you’re going to answer with such sweet gifs.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.