Why do we cover a yawn?

Please, can anyone give me a straight answer? As a boy, l was taught that if l yawned l should put a hand over my mouth. Why? (I have some thoughts on this which l'm holding back until my next post.)

- Ken

There apparently was superstition around it originally, something about not letting your soul escape? Nowadays (and for decades) it's being polite, some people see it as incredibly rude not to.

Same reason as we shouldn't speak while we are eating. Just politeness I guess. Most people don't really want to see inside your mouth, unless they are dentists, or have a dental fetish. 😃, or an oral one, I suppose.

Re my original question … Try also: why do we wear clothes on a hot summer's day? Isn't that related? Both are ultimately mysterious! Sure, l don't want to see someone masticating their food, the first stage of digestion with all its unfortunate (?) associations. But a good big yawn? What is wrong with that?! Perhaps it could be taken as implying that present company is boring! So covering it up is to minimise it and serve as an apology?! (Accordingly, yes, politeness may have something to do with it, LordJim2 and also arika.)

But I'm a little sceptical of the superstition mentioned by arika, of not letting the soul escape the body. Nobody ever inveighed against full-throated choral singers or opera singers, did they?! I'm still sufficient of a Freudian to think that there must be something sexual about a yawn. I certainly find it so (!), but then l have an acknowledged oral fetish, don't l?! What, then, are the rest of you sublimating when you turn your eyes from someone yawning?

Anyone?

- Ken

But a good big yawn? What is wrong with that?! Perhaps it could be taken as implying that present company is boring! So covering it up is to minimize it and serve as an apology?!

Yes, that's literally it.

Also some people (and more frequently in some cultures) they cover their mouths when they laugh, since showing your mouth like that doing something other than talking is considered impolite.

Ken,

First, as a good answer for your question about covering your mouth when you yawn – It is the same reason that you cover your mouth when you sneeze. Some germs that may be in your mouth can get out into the air when you yawn. When you sneeze it is that some germs that may be in your nose can get out into the air.

Lord Jim 2,

You are not just 100% right that we should not speak when we eat – you are 1000% right that we should not speak when we eat. Now, I wish my wife would take that advice. She constantly tries to talk when she speaks and I have to keep telling her not to do it. It is in her up bringing. Her whole family does that. I was taught not to do it.

In fact, when I was in U.S. Navy Boot Camp we were told not to do that. It was said that even if the Admiral came in while we were eating and had food in our mouth, and he asked a question or gave an order, we were supposed to point to our mouth with our pointer finger on either hand and wait a moment until we swallowed before we answered his question or said to him or her “YES SIR.” Even a female officer was to be called SIR and not MAM [spelling may not be right].

Nice tries, all you good people who sent a response to my question.

I can't say l'm 100% convinced. Professional photographers who take close-ups of people laughing invariably angle the shot and/or lighting to not show far back!

Further thoughts may follow …

- Ken

Yes that should have something to do with decency - Ken

Nice tries, all you good people who sent a response to my question.

I can't say l'm 100% convinced. Professional photographers who take close-ups of people laughing invariably angle the shot and/or lighting to not show far back!

Further thoughts may follow …

- Ken

New answer: it's to keep people with mouth fetishes who can't control themselves from getting turned on 😉

(Seriously though, if you have a theory stop telling us we're wrong (we're not, consider context, it's like you're saying “people couldn't wear shirts for modesty because they wear underwear at the beach!”), and just tell us your theory instead of waiting over a full day to say anything.)

Hi to arika and others! I didn't want to keep u all on tenterhooks. I've floated my theory now! Today is my birthday, so there have been messages and emails arriving, rather more than usual! Excuses, excuses!

- Ken

Maybe subconsciously embarrassed for yawning

Because yawn is dangerous, contagious and easily spread…..so imagine u yawn at a party and everyone yawns back and then the neighbor see it and begin to yawn too……in seconds everyone is yawning and CAOS will begin….

(I think I should be a horror B movie writer)

Za

My guess for covering ones mouth is simple, it's the proper thing to do. But my guess how it started… because in the old days people simply had a mouth full of rotted teeth and real bad breath. A yawn really exposes ones teeth.

It is simply another mystery of life, like why do guys have to leave the lid down when women don't have to leave the lid up

My guess for covering ones mouth is simple, it's the proper thing to do. But my guess how it started… because in the old days people simply had a mouth full of rotted teeth and real bad breath. A yawn really exposes ones teeth.

That makes some sense if you want to derive this from history. I also wonder if it might be to cover your wide mouth opening during a multi-second yawn in order to keep anything from flying or blowing into your mouth. Whenever I’ve had occasion to think about my own yawns, most of the time I felt it was a mixture of nothing getting in plus not making anyone else look at my less than stellar dental work.

Eric

It is simply another mystery of life, like why do guys have to leave the lid down when women don't have to leave the lid up

Ain't that the truth! I think it is because it is just impolite to show a wide open mouth. Simple as that!

I was taught to cover your mouth when you yawn, chew with your mouth closed, do not talk with food in your mouth. I've told my children if you chew with your mouth open like a cow you'll be told to eat outside like a cow, always at least one child over the years standing out on the deck eating. Usually once or twice was all it took.

Dr. Sheldon Cooper covers yawns because he doesn't want people to see his oddly shaped uvula … ha ha.

I have no idea how mine are shaped, but since Sheldon is my role model in so many things, I'll follow him in this too … 😃

I was always told it was proper to cover your mouth when yawning.

It's proper and it's a reflex automatically your hands go up to cover your mouth.

I’m ok if you don’t cover a yawn. Clears the ears. If you chew with your mouth open, go outside. Except for my MIL. Gawd awful to see

There is someone’s phd in a multitude of directions

Hey, this post has come good, incl. some humour! It was going nowhere before. For example, to say, ‘You cover your mouth because it’s considered polite' is a nothing-statement, leading to, ‘Yes, l know, but why?’!

Apropos nothing much, except that l've been remembering it with my friend lngrid, there's a beloved Monty Python sketch which goes, roughly as follows. Salesman (John Cleese): ‘Certainly sir! You want a nice argument. We have them ready for you. Would you like to start with a five-minute argument or a ten-minute argument?’ And away they go!

You probably think l've gone off my rocker (as the saying goes)!

- Ken

It has to be some kind of inexplicable things mammals do that even a Harvard Genius could not explain. The baby duck knows how to swim even though it has never seen water and was not enrolled at Swimming School…

Seriously, you guys need something more to talk about! Several enemas may quiet you down. And stop yawning!

Hi 12bumblebees (post #24 )! I'm told that a yawn may be an automatic bodily reaction so as to gulp in more air - apparently, bored or tired people may become ‘neglectful’ that way.

- Ken

Also, we do have inexplicable reasons for being disgusted. From a Psychology class long ago, l remember this example. We all have saliva in our mouths. So spit some of yours in a clean glass. Now drink it!

The suggestion disgusted you, right?!

(Tonight l asked my friend lngrid why we cover our mouths to yawn. She replied simply, ‘Because it’s disgusting!')

- Ken

Have you ever seen a horse yawn? It’s for that very reason we cover our mouths. Lol!

Asian girls cover their mouths with a hand when they yawn, when they laugh, and even when they pick their teeth with a toothpick. It's kinda cute.

I don't think it's only Asian girls who do all those three things, Morty (post #29 ). But then, l'm in Australia, and we do speak of being in the Asian-Pacific region. (And we're definitely not Europe, Africa, or the Polar parts of the world.)

To those ‘kinda cute’ girls (and selected others), l might say, ‘You don’t have to cover that lovely mouth!'

- Ken