Most people know that a baker’s dozen means that anything that usually has a quantity of 12 instead has a quantity of 13. Yet, the phrase can even mean something that usually has a quantity of 12 can even have a quantity of 14.
The phrase can be found as early as 1599, in John Cooke’s Tu Quoque: “Mine’s a baker’s dozen: Master Bubble, tell your money.”
Then John Goodwin used it in A Being Filled with the Spirit, referring back to a quotation from 1665: “As that which we call the in-bread is given into the dozen, there is nothing properly paid or given for it, but only for the dozen.”
By 1864 Hotten’s Slang Dictionary gave this definition for Baker’s dozen: “This consists of thirteen or fourteen; the surplus number, called the inbread, being thrown in for fear of incurring the penalty for short weight.”
Yet, none of these actually tell the origin of the phrase. The reason for this phrase is the Assize of Bread and Ale. It was a law created by Henry III in 1266. Bakers or brewers could be punished by fine, pilloring, or flogging if they gave short measure of goods. The law was still in existence in 1477. In that year, the Chronicle of London reported that John Mundew, a baker, was “schryved upon the pyllory” for selling bread that was underweight. Shryved means he was forced to admit his guilt.
It seems odd that this is how a baker’s dozen would come about as a dozen is not a weight measure. However, a dozen loaves of certain types of bread would end up weighing about a certain amount and buyers knew how much bread they wanted. When the weight of bread was given, bakers knew that it was probably about 12 loaves, but in order to avoid being fined, they would throw in one or two extra loaves so the goods would definitely not be underweight.
When selling single loaves, bakers would offer an small, but extra piece to the buyer.
The extra loaves were often known as “inbread” or “vantage loaves.” Somehow this evolved into being known as a “baker’s dozen.”
Source:
Martin, Gary. “Baker’s dozen”. The Phrase Finder. June 2, 2010 http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/Bakers%20dozen.html>.
