Most people know that a baker’s dozen means something that usually has a size of 12 instead of a size of 13. However, it can also mean that something that usually has a size of 12 can also have a size of 14.
The expression can be found as early as 1599, in John Cooke’s Tu Quoque: “My baker’s twelve: Master Bull, tell me your money.”
Then John Goodwin used it in Filled with the Spirit, referring to the sentence of 1665: “So that what we call twelve bread is given, nothing is properly paid for it, but only for twelve.”
By 1864 Hotten’s Slang Dictionary gave this definition for Baker’s dozen: “This consists of thirteen or fourteen; a superfluous number, called bread, objected to for fear of the penalty of a small weight.”
However, none of these tell the origin of the expression. The reason for this phrase is Assisi Bread and Ale. It was a law from Henry III in 1266. Bakers or brewers could be fined, robbed, or punished with whippings if they gave a short measure of goods. The law was still in force in 1477. In that year, the Chronicle of London reports that John Mundew, a baker, was “in the pyllor” obsolete for bread sold by weight. He was forced to confess the crime.
This law was drawn up by a group called the Worshipful Company Bakers, which goes back at least to the time of Henry the Second (1154 -1189).
It seems incongruous that a baker’s dozen should happen in this way, as the measure of a dozen is not weight. However, twelve loaves of certain types of bread weighed a certain amount and customers knew how much bread they wanted. When the weight of the bread was given, the bakers probably knew that there were 12 loaves, but in order not to be fined, they threw in one or two extra loaves, so that they would not be good without weight.
When they sold some bread, the bakers would offer a small but extra portion to the buyer.
Extra breads are often known as “breads” or “breads”. I don’t know how this agreement evolved to be known as the “twelve bakers”.
Source:
Martin, Gary. “Twelve pence.” The phrase Finder. June 2, 2010
