| If you were to look around your home, | | | | recent times. It was during the 1700s that it |
| apartment or condominium today you surly will | | | | became common for people to use a table with |
| find at least one table being used and that would | | | | chairs to eat from. Tables were used for eating |
| most likely be the kitchen or dining room table. | | | | by the ancient Greeks and Romans but that was |
| Many people will also have other tables as well | | | | by the aristocracy almost exclusively. For |
| often including a table out side on the patio. | | | | common people, if they happened to have |
| Throughout the course of history how a table | | | | something that resembled a table it would be |
| looks, is used and what it is made of has | | | | used for a work area or to keep food stuffs off |
| undergone several transformations. | | | | of the ground and out of the way of scavengers |
| The word "table" has Latin origins and means | | | | and pests. |
| "board" or "flat place" when roughly translated. | | | | Wood was expensive to mill and flat stone was |
| Now however; it means basically one thing and | | | | also expensive to come by, so for centuries it |
| that is the four legged table as we know it. The | | | | was the very wealthy and others such as monks |
| earliest use of tables was by the Egyptians and | | | | in monastaries that had the privilege of sitting |
| the Chinese and they were made of flat stone | | | | around a table and dining such as is so common |
| and were used to put things on. | | | | today. Today the dining room table as we know it |
| The table as we know it, with chairs set around it | | | | would have been looked on as truly a luxury by |
| did not come into common usage until fairly | | | | our distant ancestors. |