subs. (old).—1. Bakers, against whom severe penalties for impurity of bread or shortness of weight were enacted from very early times, have been the subject of much colloquial sarcasm: see quots.
1562. HEYWOOD, Proverbs and Epigrams (1867), 47. I feare we parte not yéet, Quoth the BAKER to the pylorie.
1598. J. STOW, The Survey of London (1633), 208. A Pillorie for the punishment of BAKERS, offending in the assise of bread.
1602. SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, iv. 5. 42. They say the owl was a BAKER’S DAUGHTER.
1604. DEKKER, The Honest Whore [Works (1873), II. 122]. Are not BAKERS’ ARMES the skales of Iustice? yet is not their bread light.
1660. HOWELL, English Proverbs, 11. Ile take no leave of you, quoth the BAKER to the Pillory.
1675. RAY, Proverbs, ‘Miscellaneous.’ Three dear years will raise a BAKER’S DAUGHTER to a portion. ’Tis not the smallness of the bread, but the knavery of the BAKER. Ibid., ‘Relating to … Trades.’ Take all, and pay the BAKER.
1857. Notes and Queries, 21 March. Pull Devil, Pull BAKER, in England’s the cry.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xxxvii. It’s all fair pulling, ‘PULL DEVIL, PULL BAKER’; someone has to get the worst of it. Now it’s us [bushrangers], now it’s them [the police] that gets … rubbed out.
2. (American).—A loafer. [The word is generally attributed to Baron de Mandat Grancey, who, in Cowboys and Colonels, innocently translated the word ‘loafer’ as BAKER.]
TO SPELL BAKER (colloquial).—To attempt a difficult task. [In old spelling books ‘baker’ was often the first word of two syllables to which a child came when learning to spell.]
1869. LONGFELLOW, New England Tragedies. If an old man will marry a young wife, why then—why then—why then—he must SPELL BAKER.
