Entries

According to nikkoku:
"「ござんす」から転じた「おざんす」の変化した語か。"

ざんす can serve a function like ある as a verb meaning "to exist, to be" as a 自サ特活 verb. It can also be used as a subsidiary (補助動詞) with で, but I think that should be a seperate entry, given it is even necessary.

Also a 補助動詞/助動詞 (JMdict doesn't distinguish them, does it?), but should be in combination with で like the others, right? Because it isn't tagged as 連語. I'm not all too sure about the plain ざんす being used as a copula, maybe I'm mistunderstanding this. Nikkoku example sentences:
...「いっそお気の毒ざんすねへ」
...「私なぞはうそはきついきらいざんす」
What confuses me is that there isn't any record of でざんす like there is with the other で forms of ござんす, ござります, ございます etc.



ざんす:「ざんせ・ざんし・ざんす・ざんす・ざんすれ・◯」
サ変: 「せ・し・す・する・すれ・せよ」

I see there exists a tag "verb unspecified" is this ever used? From looking at how many entries have that tag (0), I assumed it isn't. So I tagged it as [exp]. But I think a tag for such cases might be useful.

SMK on ざんす: 
ざん・す
   ①（自・特殊型）
     〔「ござんす」の略。元来は江戸の遊女の言葉であったとされる〕「ございます」の古風な表現。
   ②（助動・特殊型）
     「でございます」に当たる古風な丁寧語。

Sankoku on ざます:
ざま・す｟助動(マス型)｠
  〔古風・女〕⇨ざあます。
  「私、だめなん━・そう（で）━」

and ざあます:
ざあま・す｟助動(マス型)｠〔活用は「せ・しょ｜し｜す｜す｜○｜○」〕
  〔古風・女〕でございます。ざます。

Other kokugos point to ざあます as well. All the while Daijr and nikk say it's derived from ざんす not from ざあます < ございます.