Why is putting elbows on the table rude

If their elbows never touch the table, keep yours on your lap. OK — did you guess? Keep doing what only you can do! Bless your corner of the world by being the best version of you! Maralee McKee is dedicated to helping you become the person you most want to be and to live a confident, kind, and generous life!

She is a contemporary etiquette, manners, and people skill expert and the founder of the prestigious Etiquette School of America. Comments Add Comment.

Back to story Comment on this project. Tell us what you think Thanks for adding your feedback. All rights reserved. Today, though, we're less apt to lunge over the table during a business lunch gone awry than we may have been a few hundred years ago, but before you go tossing your elbows with abandon, there's still a degree to which the rule applies.

While keeping your elbows off the table can't be traced back to a single culture or civilisation, it more so belongs to the universal language of principle, according to Henry Hitchings, author ofSorry! The English and Their Manners.

So, no elbows on the table boils down to our innate, human instinct to avoid transgression, especially over another's comfort and space. However, that's not to say that in the here and now leaving your elbows on the table will bring dishonour upon your family.

They evolve with the times to meet our needs and sensibilities," explains Maralee McKee, founder of Manners Mentor Inc. In fact, some body language discourse now suggests that elbows on the table are a sign of appearing engaged and focused on the conversation at hand, and many etiquette experts these days don't even follow or recommend this rule anymore. Above all, heed the Emily Post Institute's golden rule: "Being considerate, respectful, and honest is more important than knowing which fork to use.

Whether it's a handshake or a fist bump, it's the underlying sincerity and good intentions of the action that matter most. With so many astrological events happening in succession - Mercury retrograde, the November new moon, and Mercury entering mysterious Scorpio - it is abundantly clear the universe does not sleep.

Fortunately for all of us, though, the next event on its agenda is a good thing. So why, of all the offensive acts one could commit while dining, is it so forcefully policed? And is it actually rude? Like most etiquette rules, mealtime elbow placement is a holdover from a bygone era.

For earlier civilizations, it was a way to prevent outbreaks of violence at the table. Think of it this way.