This error of good manners that people do only do not know how to stay at the table

“Take your elbows of the table!”. This injunction, understood from childhood, sums up a rule of decorum transmitted for centuries. However, If uses have evolved, putting your elbows on the table is still a sign of bad education today. In addition, Being well at the table is showing respect for your guests, but also adopting a posture that testifies to courtesy. Consequently, Keeping their arms in their place is to avoid winning visually or physically.

Why shouldn’t you put your elbows on the table? – This error good manners people

As reported TF1 infothe origins of this rule are old and sometimes surprising. Consequently, In the Middle Ages, meals could quickly turn into drama: poisonings, bloody quarrels, settling of scores … However, To reassure everyone, each guest had to keep the hands visible, in view of all. Place your elbows or hide a hand could arouse suspicion. Dorticality therefore this error good manners people also used collective security around the table.

Another historical reason: the lack of space. At a time when banquets gathered a large number of guests on narrow tables. putting the elbows greatly embarrassed the neighborhood. The solution? Keep the forearms at the edge of the table to give maximum ease to others. This practical gesture has become. over time, a mark of respect, then a standard of good manners that we continue to transmit today.

What is the right posture to adopt at the table?

But then, how to stand properly? Chronicler Jérémy Come explained it at the microphone of Europe 1 in 2022: “We don’t put the elbow on the table. but we put the forearms on a third of our arm.” In other words. it is not a question of letting your arms hang or sticking them against the chest, but of posing just what it takes this error good manners people to remain straight, present, without invading the common space. Showing your hands remains essential: “It meant that we did not hide a weapon.”

This rule is not universal. In Anglo-Saxon countries. for example, it is customary to put one hand on the table and the other on the knee, which may seem strange for a well-high French. But in France, decorum remains clear: the elbows outside the plate, the discreet but visible forearms. As with the famous “we do not speak with full mouth”, this detail is a small gesture … But a great proof of politeness.