Dozen#Baker's dozen

The English word dozen comes from the old form douzaine, a French word meaning {{gloss|a group of twelve}} ("Assemblage de choses de même nature au nombre de douze" (translation: A group of twelve things of the same nature), as defined in the eighth edition of the {{lang|fr|Dictionnaire de l'Académie française}}).{{Citation|url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/24/D0372400.html |title=Bartleby |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210005528/http://www.bartleby.com/61/24/D0372400.html |archive-date=December 10, 2006 }}{{cite web| url = http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/dozen | title =Dozen | work = Free Dictionary | publisher = Merriam-Webster | access-date= 2011-10-28}}{{cite web |url=http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/dozen?view=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221221/http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/dozen?view=uk |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 26, 2007 | work =Oxford Dictionaries Online |publisher=Ask Oxford |title=dozen |access-date=2013-01-31}} This French word{{cite web | url =http://www.patrimoine-de-france.org/mots/mots-acade-30-14691.html#mot-2 | title =Douzain, Douzaine, Douze, Douze-huit, Douzième, Douzièmement, Dox(o)-, Doxographe, Doxologie, Doyen | publisher =Patrimoine de France | access-date =2011-10-28 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20110929162634/http://www.patrimoine-de-france.org/mots/mots-acade-30-14691.html#mot-2 | archive-date =2011-09-29 | url-status =dead }} is a derivation from the cardinal numeral douze ({{gloss|twelve}}, from Latin {{lang|la|duodĕcim}}) and the collective suffix -aine (from Latin -ēna), a suffix also used to form other words with similar meanings such as quinzaine (a group of fifteen), vingtaine (a group of twenty), centaine (a group of one hundred), etc. These French words have synonymous cognates in Spanish: docena,{{cite web| url= http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=docena | publisher =Real Academia Española | work = Diccionario Usual | language= es| title = docena |access-date= 2011-10-28}}{{cite web|url = http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=doce |title= doce | publisher = Real Academia Española | work = Diccionario Usual | language= es| access-date = 2011-10-28}}{{cite web | url=http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=-ena | title = -ena | publisher = Real Academia Española | work = Diccionario Usual |language= es|access-date= 2011-10-28}} quincena, veintena, centena, etc. English dozen, French {{lang|fr|douzaine}}, Catalan dotzena, Portuguese "dúzia", Persian dowjin "دوجین", Arabic {{lang|ar|درزن}} ({{transl|ar|durzen}}), Turkish "düzine", Hindi darjan "दर्जन", German {{lang|de|Dutzend}}, Dutch {{lang|nl|dozijn}}, Italian {{lang|it|dozzina}} and Polish tuzin, are also used as indefinite quantifiers to mean {{gloss|about twelve}} or {{gloss|many}} (as in "a dozen times", "dozens of people").

A confusion may arise with the Anglo-Norman dizeyne (French dixaine or dizaine) a tithing, or group of ten households{{Citation | publisher = Oxford | title = English Dictionary | contribution = meaning #4}}. — dating from the earlier English system of grouping households into tens and hundreds for the purposes of law, order and mutual surety (see Tithing). In some texts this 'dizeyne' may be rendered as 'dozen'.{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=William Lauriston Melville |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofpolicei00leewuoft |title=A History of Police in England |publisher=Methuen & Co |year=1901 |location=London |pages=121–122|isbn=9780875851198 }}

File:Half Dozen Chargrilled Oysters.jpg]]

{{Expand section|date=February 2025}}

The phrase "half a dozen" means six (6) of something, as 6 is half of 12. The idiom "six of one, half a dozen of the other" means two options are of equal worth so choosing one is the same as choosing the other.{{Cite web |last=Kwan |first=Michael |date=2012-08-23 |title=Grammar 101: Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other » Beyond the Rhetoric |url=https://btr.michaelkwan.com/2012/08/23/grammar-101-six-of-one-half-a-dozen-of-the-other/ |access-date=2022-11-16 |website=Beyond the Rhetoric |language=en-US}}

{{redirect|Baker's dozen}}

A baker's dozen, devil's dozen,{{citation|title=Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary|contribution=devil's dozen|url= https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/devil%27s%20dozen}}{{cite book|title=Concise Oxford English Dictionary: Luxury Edition |chapter= devil – phrases: the devil's dozen |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sYScAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA392|volume=12|page=392|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn = 9780199601110}} or long dozen is 13, one more than a standard dozen. The broadest use of baker's dozen today is simply a group of thirteen objects (often baked goods).{{citation|title=Webster's II New College Dictionary|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|isbn=0395962145|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/webstersiinewcol00unse|author=Webster|year=1999}}. The term has meant different things over the last few centuries.

In England, when selling certain goods, bakers were obliged to sell goods by the dozen at a specific weight or quality (or a specific average weight). During this time, bakers who sold a dozen units that failed to meet this requirement could be penalized with a fine. Therefore, to avoid risking this penalty, some bakers included an extra unit to be sure the minimum weight was met, bringing the total to 13 units or what is now commonly known as a baker's dozen.{{citation|title=The Baker's Helper|publisher=Clissold Publishing Company|year=1921|volume=36|page=562|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gbk2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA562|contribution=The Baker's Dozen}}.{{Cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/story/why-is-a-bakers-dozen-13 | title=Why Is a Baker's Dozen 13? | publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica | access-date=2022-11-30 | last=Eldridge | first=Alison }} The thirteenth piece of bread is called the vantage loaf.{{Cite book|title=Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable|publisher=Cassel and Co|year=2000|isbn=0304350966|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780304350964/page/1227 1227]|title-link=Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable}}

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term "baker's dozen" originated in the late 16th century and is "apparently so called after the former practice among bakers of including a thirteenth loaf when selling a dozen to a retailer, the extra loaf representing the retailer's profit."{{citation|title=Oxford English Dictionary|year=2010|edition=3rd|isbn=9780191727665|last1=Stevenson|first1=Angus|publisher=Oxford University Press }}.

According to the 1811 Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, by Francis Grose, "a Baker's Dozen is Thirteen; that number of rolls being allowed to the purchaser of a dozen".{{citation|author=Francis Grose|author-link=Francis Grose|title=Classical Dictionary of the vulgar tongue|year= 2007|page=18|edition=unabridged|orig-year=1811}}. However, contrary to most sources, according to the anonymous 1785 version of that dictionary, which was probably also by Grose, "a Baker's Dozen is Fourteen, that number of rolls being allowed to the purchaser of a dozen".{{citation|author=Francis Grose|title=A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar tongue|year=1785|page=19|orig-year=1785}}.

The term has also been defined in a jocular way, as "twelve of today's and one of yesterday's."{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}}

The term has also jokingly been described as "A dozen and the baker made one extra for himself."

A lesser-used regionalism is the Texas dozen, which generally consists of 15. This is typically used only in Texas and surrounding areas for such goods as flowers or baked goods, although can be applied to anything that is counted, such as photographs.{{Cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ci4EAAAAMBAJ&dq=what+is+%22texas+dozen%22&pg=PA60 | title=Texas Monthly | date=April 1980 | url-status=dead }}

• Lagniappe
• Fourteener (poetry)

{{Reflist}}

{{Wiktionary|baker's dozen}}

• [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/Bakers%20dozen.html History of the term Baker's dozen] The Phrase Finder

Category:Integers

Category:Units of amount

Category:12 (number)