If one speaks Japanese to a, say, stranger in Modern times, is 「でござる」still
acceptable?

If somebody says 「でござる」, what would be the people's general reaction?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-17T12:31:10.800
25105
2015-06-18T05:24:39.297
10382
question
word-choice
Is でござる used in Modern Society?
Yes (and no). People frequently use でございます in very polite speech, and nobody
would find it strange to hear it used in such a context. Given that it's used
frequently in polite situations, though, it will usually take the polite ます
form. That is to say I think that it would be much less common to hear someone
use でござる in its plain form. でござる is typical speech in fiction for samurai, for
example, so if using plain form someone might remark that you sound like a
samurai.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-17T12:39:47.527
25106
2015-06-17T12:39:47.527
1797
25105
answer
When my American husband tried using でござる in speech among college-age Japanese
friends for fun after reading the _Rurouni Kenshin_ manga, back when he was
learning Japanese in the early 2000s, they were baffled and told him to stop.
You could toss it out once or twice as a joke, but no: though you could be
grammatically-correct in using it, it's not considered acceptable/welcome
speech to consistently use in general contexts. If you persisted in it (my
husband chose not to), you would likely be viewed as eccentric and/or 空気読めない.
It's not "really off-putting" to the level of making people cringe or feel
offended, but Japanese culture doesn't generally welcome individuals going
against the norm and standing out, so you'd be indicating that either you
don't give a crap about that value, or that you don't understand it, or that
you're odd.

See also Boaz Yaniv's answer
[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/653/if-i-wanted-to-sound-
more-like-a-samurai-what-words-and-phrases-should-i-learn/673#673) which
explains that

> the stereotypical Samurai speech in Jidaigeki is actually based on the Edo
> dialect of late Edo period. Many of the mannerisms you'd find in this speech
> do not specifically represent Samurai, but rather a typical resident of Edo
> in that particular time.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-18T05:19:31.857
25126
2015-06-18T05:24:39.297
2017-04-13T12:43:44.740
-1
4547
25105
answer