or bargain, subs. phr. (old).—1. Thirteen counted as twelve: sometimes fourteen (GROSE and BEE). Hence (2) = good measure: e.g., TO GIVE A MAN A BAKER’S DOZEN = to trounce him well. Also BROWN-DOZEN (q.v.); DEVIL’S-DOZEN (cf. BAKER 1, and Fr. boulanger = devil); and ROUND-DOZEN (see ROUND). [Bakers were (and are) liable to heavy penalties for deficiency in the weights of loaves: these were fixed for every price from eighteenpence down to twopence, but penny loaves or rolls were not specified in the statute. Bakers, therefore, to be on the safe side, gave, for a dozen of bread, an additional loaf, known as ‘inbread.’ A similar custom was formerly observed with regard to coal, and publishers nowadays reckon thirteen copies of a book as twelve.
1596. NASHE, Have with You to Saffron-Walden [Works, III. ii.]. Conioyning with his aforesaid Doctor Brother in eightie eight browne BAKER’S DOZEN of Almanackes.
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Serqua, a dozen, namely of egges, or as we say, a BAKER’S DOZEN, that is thirteene to the dozen.
1599. J. COOKE, Green’s Tu Quoque, or the Cittie Gallant [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), VII. 49]. Mine’s a BAKER’S DOZEN: Master Bubble, tell your money.
1610. HUDSON [naming a group of thirteen or fourteen islands on the east shore of Hudson’s Bay], LA DOUZAINE DU BOULANGER.
fl. 1659. R. FLETCHER, Poems, 131.
| This strings the BAKERS DOZEN, christens all | |
| The cross-legd hours of time since Adam’s fall. |
1651. CLEVELAND, Poems [NARES].
| Pair-royall headed Cerberus his cozen; | |
| Hercules labours were a BAKER’S DOZEN. |
1694. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, V. xxii. We saw a knot of others, about a BAKER’S DOZEN in number, tippling under an arbour.
1706. WARD, The Wooden World Dissected, 67. The King … is the only Almanack-maker for his Money, who honestly stretches them out to a BAKER’S DOZEN.
1733. FIELDING, Don Quixote, III. vi. I dare swear there were a good round BAKER’S DOZEN, at least.
1774. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 444.
| The moment that this loving cousin | |
| Awak’d he saw a BAKER’S DOZEN | |
| Of Thracians kill’d. |
1822. NARES, Glossary, s.v. BAKER’S-DOZEN … originally devil’s dozen … the number of witches at table together in their sabbaths. Hence thirteen at table. The baker … a very unpopular character in former times, seems to have been substituted for the devil. [Abridged.]
1824. SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, xxviii. ‘As to your lawyer, you get just your guinea’s worth from him—not even so much as the BAKER’S BARGAIN, thirteen to the dozen.’
1850. RILEY, Siber Albus, Pref. 68. These dealers … [Hucksters] on purchasing their bread from the bakers, were privileged by law to receive thirteen batches for twelve, and this would seem to have been the extent of their profits. Hence the expression, still in use, ‘A BAKER’S DOZEN.’
1902. Daily Mail, 6 March, 4, 3. Quite a BAKER’S DOZEN of would-be testifiers … to the marvellous story of their ‘cures.’
