A napkin, serviette or face towelette is a rectangle of cloth used at the table for wiping the mouth and fingers while eating. It is usually small and folded, sometimes in intricate designs and shapes. The word comes from Middle English, borrowing the French nappea cloth covering for a tableand adding -kin, the diminutive suffix.




Description and history



Summaries of napkin history often say that the ancient Greeks used bread to wipe their hands. This is suggested by a passage in one of Alciphron's letters (3:44), and some remarks by the sausage seller in Aristophanes' play, The Knights.[2] The bread in both texts is referred to as apomagdalia, which simply means bread from inside the crust known as the crumb, and not special "napkin bread".[3] The use of paper napkins is documented in ancient China, where paper was invented in the 2nd century BC.[4] Paper napkins were known as chih pha, folded in squares, and used for the serving of tea. Textual evidence of paper napkins appears in a description of the possessions of the Yu family, from the city of Hangzhou.[5] Paper napkins were first imported in the US in the late 1800's but didn't gain widespread acceptance until 1948 when Emily Post asserted, "It’s far better form to use paper napkins than linen napkins that were used at breakfast."[6][7]

See also


  1. Oxford English Dictionary
  2. Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898
  3. Liddell and Scott, Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, 1889
  4. Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin (1985). "Paper and Printing". Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Chemistry and Chemical Technology. 5 part 1. Cambridge University Press: 38. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. Waters, Michael (31 October 2019). "Paper napkins are expensive and environmentally unsound. Now the industry is trying to save itself". Vox (website). Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  7. "Paper Napkins Okeh; Emily Says So". Long Beach Independent. 2 December 1948. Retrieved 4 November 2019.