In Japanese, itterasshai いってらっしゃい, meaning literally "go and come back," is an expression used when saying goodbye to someone leaving home to go to school, work, etc., specially after the person leaving says itte-kimasu 行ってきます.
When they return, they'd say tadaima ただいま, to be greeted with okaeri おかえり.
It's also spelled 行ってらっしゃい.
Meaning
The phrase itte-rasshai 行ってらっしゃい means "go and come back." It's composed of two verbs:
- iku
行く
To go. - itte - the te-form of iku.
- rassharu
らっしゃる
To go. (iku 行く)
To come. (kuru 来る)
To be. (iru 居る)
The word rassharu is an abbreviation of irassharu いらっしゃる.
And so rasshai is synonymous with irasshai いらっしゃい. Both words are honorific speech, sonkeigo 尊敬語.
The polite ~masu ～ます form of rassharu, irassharu would be rasshaimasu らっしゃいます, irasshaimasu いらっしゃいます, with ~i ～い instead of ~ri ～り due to i-onbin イ音便.
Removing the ~masu and you have the masu stem, i.e. the ren'youkei 連用形, rasshai~/irasshai~.
The ren'youkei of sonkeigo verbs is sometimes used as an abbreviation of the meireikei 命令形, "imperative form." Compare:
- kudasaru
くださる
[For someone of higher status] to give [something] to [someone of lower status like me]. - kudasaimasu
くださいます - kudasaimase
くださいませ
Give [it] to [me]. - kudasai
ください - kore φ kudasai
これください
Give this to [me].
This means itte-rasshai means the same thing as:
- itte-rasshaimase
行ってらっしゃいませ
Go and come back. - itte-irasshaimase
行っていらっしゃいませ - itte-koi
行って来い
When someone leaves home, they say:
- itte-kimasu
行ってくる
[I] will go and come back. - itte-kuru
行ってくる
And someone tells them:
- itte-koi
行って来い
Go and come back. - itte-rasshai
行ってらっしゃい
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