politeness of desu forms

[attwad]

I heard the word "degozaru" at the end of a sentence and If I remember well it's a VERY polite form of the desu copolla isn't it? can someone tell me if this order is correct?

da < desu < degozaimasu < degozaru

thanks!

[Jason]

Close, but not quite. "Degozaru" is the plain form of "degozaimasu" (it's irregular) so the list should look like this:

da < desu < degozaru < degozaimasu

Just FYI, "degozaru" is not used in modern Japanese speech.