Question

What are the etiquette reasons for not putting your elbows on the table?

Answer 1

What part of putting your elbows on the table involves speech on your part? Do you make an announcement like "I'm going to put my elbows on the table now"? . . Yes, you are free (in the United States anyway) to express your opinion freely as am I. So stop being rude and take your elbows off the table before I knock them off.

Answer 2

Because freedom of expression doesn't apply to people who put their elbows on the table.

Answer 3

bad manners. if you put your elbows on the table you may accidently put them in the soup bowl or another plate of food and then you will be the idiot of the table! and plus after that no one would wanna eat that food after your elbows have been in it! and the hostess and the host would probably be mad at you too. say you dont have very nice manners do you??

Answer 4

It is a rule of etiquette that dates back to the dates of the British Rule of Henry VIII where people used to have to clean toilets with their elbows and often did not wash before they came to dinner. So the act of putting elbows on the table was viewed as wiping fecal matter on the table. This practice also led to the term "elbow grease" and coined the expression, "You don't shit where you eat"