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Not quite. There are a few theories as to why a baker’s dozen became 13, but the most widely accepted one has to do with avoiding a beating. In medieval England there were laws that related the price of bread to the price of the wheat used to make it. Bakers who were found to be “cheating” their customers by overpricing undersized loaves ...
- Alison Eldridge
Dec 10, 2012 · Unfortunately, the baker’s dozen came out of practical self-interest, with London bakers of old. In the past, loaves of bread were not sold according to quantity, but according to weight. But let’s back up a bit. It’s not just bread that used to be sold by weight, it was darn near everything.
Dec 11, 2023 · The History of a Baker’s Dozen. This plus-one to the normal amount in a dozen didn’t show up for fun. The term “bakers dozen” goes all the way back to medieval England, where bakers were making 13 instead of the standard 12 loaves of bread to avoid jail time. According to Encyclopedia Britannica and Mental Floss, some bakers in 13th ...
Apr 6, 2022 · While a dozen typically refers to 12 of an item, a baker's dozen is understood to mean 13, per The Phrase Finder. So where does the extra item come from? Bakers certainly cannot be bad at counting — they need to be good at basic math in order to do their jobs. Many theories as to where the baker's dozen came from have popped up over the years.
Here’s some detail about the origin of ‘baker’s dozen’. Firstly, the practice of adding an extra loaf originated several centuries before the phrase. England has a long history of regulation of trade; bakers were regulated by a trade guild called The Worshipful Company of Bakers, which dates back to at least the reign of Henry II (1154-89).
Oct 24, 2002 · Whichever theory you accept, the evolution of the expression today has come to mean that the baker adds an extra cookie, bun, pastry or whatever to the order of 12 as a bonus. By the way, the word “baker” itself, meaning one who bakes (duh), dates from around the year 1000. A variant is bakester, which survives in the surname Baxter.
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Aug 23, 2017 · The phrase a baker’s dozen, which means thirteen, is first recorded in Greenes Tu quoque, or, The cittie gallant (London, 1614), a comedy written by the otherwise unknown playwright John Cook and staged at the end of the reign (1558-1603) of Elizabeth I: – Staines. Come Gentlemen, heere’s dice. – Scattergood. Please you aduance to the ...
