Elbows on the table

Factual Questions
1

There are a couple of questions I asked of Cecil several months ago. I don’t see an answer to them listed anywhere on TSD website, proper, so I thought I’d ask Dopers (as I was encouraged to all those months ago): In U.S. (or is it Western, in general?) culture why is it typically considered rude to put one’s elbows on the table when dining? The only thing I’ve ever heard about this is the one about how in the Old West people (or at least men) would keep at least one hand below table level as a way of keeping close to their firearm of choice. Personally I don’t put much faith in that explanation. Anybody else have a better one?

2

I heard that it was because the “table” was often a few boards on a couple of sawhorses, covered with a cloth to hide the jerry-rigged nature of the thing. If someone at just the wrong place at the table put his elbows – and thus more of his weight – on the table, it would flip the table! :eek:

Hell, I’ve seen this nowadays on those diner tables with the single pole-like leg in the middle. If the leg isn’t fully fastened to a level base and the top, leaning on the table makes it tippy, sometimes messily so. :smack:

3

According to Emily Post, 18th edition, the no elbows rule applies only when you are actually eating. At the table, without utensil or food in hand, it is fine to rest elbows on the table. The idea is avoid looking like a convict in the mess hall fearful someone will grab his food or like a dog guarding its dish.

4

Putting your elbows on the table takes up extra space, crowds your dining neighbors, interferes with the free flow of serving dishes and condiments, often causes your hands to block your face (which makes it difficult to hold a conversation), and it can lead to awkward motions with the fork and knife that make grease and food splatter on clothes.

5

It seems that the objections go back a long way:

6

I’ve been to several other countries recently, and have gotten etiquette lessons in all of them. Etiquette is surprisingly quite different in each of them, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the no elbows rule is primarily a US-based rule only.

J.