Etiquette facts for kids

In Company Shocked at a Lady Getting up to Ring the Bell (1805) James Gillray caricatured "A widow and her suitors, who seem to have forgot their manners in the intensity of their admiration."

Etiquette, one aspect of decorum, is a code that rules how everyone is expected to behave, according to the social conventions and norms, in society, in a social class, or group. It is usually unwritten, but it may be put in written form. Because they are a product of the society's culture and history, the rules of etiquette are very different from time to time, and from one place and social group to another.

Images for kids

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  At the Palace of Versailles, King Louis XIV used complicated étiquette to manage and control his courtiers and their politicking.

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  In the 18th century, Philip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, first used the word etiquette to mean "the conventional rules of personal behaviour in polite society." (William Hoare)

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  In High-Change in Bond Street, – ou – la Politesse du Grande Monde (1796), James Gillray caricatured the lack of etiquette in a group of men who are depicted leering at women and crowding them off the sidewalk.

See also

In Spanish: Etiqueta (código) para niños