# Elbows on the table **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 11, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbows-on-the-table/712348 "2015-02-11T00:10:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbows-on-the-table/712348/1 "2015-02-11T00:10:25Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbows-on-the-table/712348/2 "2015-02-11T03:25:00Z")
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: ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbows-on-the-table/712348/3 "2015-02-11T03:45:25Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbows-on-the-table/712348/4 "2015-02-11T09:01:52Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbows-on-the-table/712348/5 "2015-02-11T12:09:50Z")
It seems that the objections go back a long way: > [@](#): > > The law against it is at least two millennia old, I think, not knowing how else to interpret the line in the Wisdom of Sirach listing “leaning with thine elbow at meat” as a thing to be ashamed of - a crime in the same category as theft, iniquity, unjust dealing, and “whoredom before father and mother.” > **[Is Putting Your Elbows on the Dinner Table Really So Bad?](https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/11/advice-for-modern-men-putting-your-elbows-on-the-table-and-work-travel-for-new-fathers.html)** > > Please send your questions for publication to gentlemanscholarslate@gmail.com. (Questions may be edited.) ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbows-on-the-table/712348/6 "2015-02-12T18:07:39Z")
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.