the.com/napkin
the unsung hero absorbing your spills, your doodles, and your billion-dollar business ideas
means a small piece of cloth or paper used at meals to wipe the lips and fingers or to protect clothing.
from From the Middle English nakyn or napkin, a diminutive of nape, which came from Old French nappe meaning 'tablecloth' — itself from Latin mappa, 'cloth' or 'napkin.' That same Latin mappa, oddly enough, also gave us 'map,' since maps were once drawn on cloth. So your dinner napkin and your road atlas are distant cousins.
- folding art
- Renaissance feasts featured napkins folded into animals and ships
- napkin math
- Countless startups were first sketched on cocktail napkins
- Roman roots
- Guests brought their own cloth, the mappa, to dinner
- etiquette law
- Place it on your lap, never tucked at the collar
- laffer curve
- A famous tax theory was drawn on a 1974 napkin
cocktail napkin — standard 4.5x4.5 inch paper squares used in bars since the 1920s for drinks and notes
napkin rings — decorative holders popular in victorian formal dining to hold rolled cloth napkins between courses
dunkin donuts napkins — branded paper napkins distributed by dunkin' at 9,000+ us locations daily