baker's dozen的词源解释,baker's dozen来源

Baker's dozen "thirteen" is from 1590s, said to be from an old custom.

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." [H.T. Riley, "Liber Albus," 1859]

But Brewer says the custom originated when there were heavy penalties for short weight, bakers giving the extra bread to secure themselves.

Also compare poulter's measure (an old verse style of 12- and 14-syllable lines), so called "from the varying number of a nominal 'dozen' of eggs" [Saintsbury, "History of English Prosody," 1906].*

* He adds: "Hot cross buns, I think, have (in worthy cases) preserved latest the generous fourteen to the dozen. Thirteen was pretty common and this, I believe, holds, against the author and in favour of the retailer, in the case of books."

该词起源时间：1590年代