Napkin

A napkin (deprecated mouth cloth or dish cloth ) is up to about 50 cm × 50 cm cloth that serves during and after a meal, the mouth occasionally clean the finger and clothes to cover to protect from contamination.

The term napkin was taken over from the French, " the little maid " (Latin servus = slave, servant). First, the plates of diners were with the napkins namely by the officials wiped, hence the old German expression dish cloth, which is listed in the Encyclopedia of Johann Georg Krünitz.

The napkin (Latin mappa ) is already an integral part of the Roman feasting and well documented from the 1st century. The is from the 3rd century accumulating illustrations show two variants. Once a cloth of about 50x50cm on the dining deck to protect the covers, also a slightly smaller, usually held in the left hand mouth cloth.

The napkins were re-introduced first by the nobility in the 16th century, in the Middle Ages were wiped his fingers on the clothing or tablecloth.

Most common are paper napkins, which consist of several layers of pulp and in different levels of quality and designs are available. In the catering and special events cloth napkins damask be used that are either made of pure cotton or a cotton-linen blend fabric. The linen blend and the usual strengths are his napkin a special stand

From the Middle Ages to today, the decorative folding of napkins has ( " napkins break " ) developed into its own art form. The napkin ring spared this trouble and facilitates storage until the next meal.

In simple restaurants and food stalls much smaller napkins have become common paper. Even in the better restaurants are napkins of cellulose nothing unusual.