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50 free Etiquette trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The word etiquette comes from the French for a ticket or label, and Louis XIV used the rules it describes to keep his nobles busy at Versailles. Since then the subject has produced a Renaissance bestseller about effortless cool, a 50-year-old novelist who became America's manners authority, and a Royal Navy superstition about toasting with water. These 50 questions cover the people who wrote the rules (Castiglione, Erasmus, Lord Chesterfield, Emily Post, Amy Vanderbilt, Miss Manners, Debrett's), the table (which hand holds the fork, where the napkin goes, how to signal you have finished, why you never stand chopsticks in rice), greetings around the world (the wai, the hongi, namaste, the three-kiss countries, the oldest handshake on record) and the fine print of white tie, black tie and RSVP. Every answer is cited to a page we checked. Play in sets of ten or print the list.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'etiquette' comes from a French word for what everyday object?
A ticket
The English usage dates from about 1750, possibly suggesting that proper behaviour was your admission into society.
Q 02Which French king used a codified etiquette to tame his nobility at Versailles?
Louis XIV
The ceremonious court impressed foreign dignitaries and kept the nobles competing for favour instead of plotting.
Q 03Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 guide to ideal courtly behaviour is called what?
The Book of the Courtier
It took twenty years to write, was published by the Aldine Press in Venice just before his death, and reached England in Thomas Hoby's 1561 translation.
Q 04Castiglione's prized quality 'sprezzatura' is best translated as what?
Studied nonchalance
Peter Burke glosses it as 'careful negligence': the courtier should make everything difficult look effortless.
Q 05Which Dutch humanist wrote the 1530 manners manual 'On Civility in Children'?
Erasmus
Its lesson was that a civilised adult readily ignores the faults of others while avoiding them himself.
Q 06Which earl's 'Letters to His Son' (1774) gave English its first modern use of 'etiquette'?
Lord Chesterfield
The more than 400 letters were published by his son's widow, and they argue that manners are a tool for social advancement.
Q 07Chesterfield wished his son would often be seen to smile but never heard to do what?
Laugh
The line sums up the emotional restraint that 18th-century polite society prized.
Q 08As a youth, which US president copied out 110 'Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour' by hand?
George Washington
The rules were adapted from a French text and stressed humility, restraint and public decorum.
Q 09How old was Emily Post when she published her first etiquette book in 1922?
50
Before that she had written five novels, starting with Flight of a Moth in 1904.
Q 10What was the profession of Emily Post's father, Bruce Price?
Architect
He was known for designing luxury communities, and she inherited four of his cottages in Tuxedo Park.
Q 11In which year did Emily Post found the institute that still carries her name?
1946
The family-run organisation is now in its fifth generation and builds its advice on consideration, respect and honesty.
Q 12Which etiquette authority published her best-selling 'Complete Book of Etiquette' in 1952?
Amy Vanderbilt
She went on to host the TV programme It's in Good Taste and the radio show The Right Thing to Do.
Q 13Under what pen name has Judith Martin written an etiquette column since 1978?
Miss Manners
She refers to herself in the third person throughout, and her children began sharing the byline in 2013.
Q 21When eating soup, in which direction should the spoon move through the bowl?
Away from you
The bowl is tipped away from the diner too, so any drips land in the bowl rather than on your lap.
Q 22Where should you leave your napkin if you must leave the table mid-meal?
Unfolded on the chair seat
Only at the end of the meal does it go, still unfolded, onto the table; crumpling it on the plate is considered uncouth.
Q 23According to European table manners, what should you do before adding salt and pepper?
Taste the food
Seasoning unseen food implies you assume the cook got it wrong.
Q 14Etiquette expert Letitia Baldrige was famous for serving as social secretary to which First Lady?
Jacqueline Kennedy
Nicknamed the 'Doyenne of Decorum', she had earlier run public relations for Tiffany & Co.
Q 15Debrett's, the British authority on etiquette and the peerage, was founded in which year?
1769
John Debrett, son of a Huguenot cook, began publishing the Peerage under his own name in 1802.
Q 16What does the French phrase behind RSVP literally mean?
Respond if it pleases you
'Répondez s'il vous plaît' is usually rendered simply as 'please respond'.
Q 17On an invitation, what does 'regrets only' mean?
Answer if you cannot attend
Silence is taken as acceptance, which cuts down the host's correspondence when most guests are expected to say yes.
Q 18In European table manners, which hand traditionally holds the fork?
The left
The knife stays in the right, and the fork is usually held tines down while cutting.
Q 19In the American style of eating, what does the diner do with the fork after cutting?
Switches it to the right hand
The Continental style never makes the switch; the fork simply stays in the left hand throughout.
Q 20How do you signal to a waiter that you have finished eating?
Place knife and fork together on the plate
Parallel at the 6 o'clock or 4 o'clock position, tines up, works whether or not the plate is empty.
Q 24What is the correct way to eat a bread roll at a formal table?
Tear off mouth-sized pieces
Each piece is buttered individually from butter first transferred to your side plate, which keeps crumbs out of the shared dish.
Q 25Traditionally in Europe, who takes the first bite of a meal?
The host or hostess
Unless the host explicitly invites the others to begin first.
Q 26Which items should not be on the dining table during daylight hours, even unlit?
Candlesticks
A small rule that trips up plenty of lunch hosts.
Q 27Roughly how long did it take the fork to go from novelty to universal use in Western dining?
800 years
It was first mentioned as a curiosity in an 11th-century document and only became an affordable mark of civilised behaviour centuries later.
Q 28In which empire was the personal table fork most likely invented?
Byzantine
A princess from there, Maria Argyropoulina, brought golden forks to Venice when she married the Doge's son in 1004.
Q 29Which queen's entourage introduced the French court to guests bringing their own fork in a box?
Catherine de' Medici
The little case for one's fork and spoon was called a cadena.
Q 30In 1948, Emily Post declared what to be 'far better form' than reusing breakfast linen?
Paper napkins
Paper napkins had been imported to the US since the late 1800s but only won acceptance after her endorsement.