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In my answer to a question on the SF & Fantasy stack, I assumed that "half a dozen" is imprecise enough to mean anywhere from 5 to 7. Another user challenged that assumption and stated that since a dozen is 12, a half dozen is necessarily 6 and nothing else.

In the answer to a similar question, it is said that

Dozen is quite flexible when it is pluralized.

Does half count as a pluralisation? Can "half a dozen" mean anywhere from 5 to 7, or can it only be 6?

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SQB
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    For the record, I've never seen any use for the expression "half a dozen" other than it being another way of saying "6" – Richard Feb 06 '15 at 17:31
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    cf. "six of one, half a dozen of the other" – Matt Gutting Feb 06 '15 at 17:41
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    I use it 'flexibly'. How many beers did you have? Hmmm...half a dozen (meaning 7 or more). How many times did you win on the horses? Hmmm...half a dozen (meaning 5 or less). It can be less precise that plain old six. – Frank Feb 06 '15 at 17:46
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    @Frank I sometimes say that I've had "a couple of beers" meaning anything up to about five or six. –  Feb 06 '15 at 17:55
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    The popular idiom "six of one, half-dozen of the other" (meaning two options are equivalent) becomes meaningless unless a half dozen is exactly six. – Digital Chris Feb 06 '15 at 20:40
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    Largely dependent on context (including who's speaking). If someone said, eg, "I saw a half dozen crocuses coming up this morning" it would mean "about 6". "A half dozen eggs," however, should generally be exactly six. – Hot Licks Feb 06 '15 at 21:02
  • @DigitalChris - Actually, the idiom tends to emphasize the impreciseness of the English language when a half dozen is not exactly six. – Hot Licks Feb 06 '15 at 21:04
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    The answer depends on how pedantic you want to be about it. – Darrick Herwehe Feb 06 '15 at 21:41
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    A baker's dozen is thirteen, so what's half that? – WS2 Feb 06 '15 at 23:08
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    I can't figure out if this should be in an answer or a comment: 'dozens' is like 'hundreds'. If there are 843 people in a group, you might say that there are 'hundreds of people'. This is because the 843 people includes 800 people, which is a multiple of 100. It doesn't make 100 an imprecise or flexible number. Similarly, if there are 80 people you might say that there are 'dozens of people' because that 80 includes 72 people, which is a multiple of a dozen. Dozen still means 12, just as hundred still means 100. – DCShannon Feb 07 '15 at 01:18
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    @WS2 Half of a baker's dozen is 6.5. But a baker's dozen is not the same thing as a dozen, so it isn't really relevant. – DCShannon Feb 07 '15 at 01:20
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    Dozen is nothing like 'hundreds' - a dozen is 12, unambiguously. Half a dozen is 6, also unambiguously. Both are sometimes used as approximates, but so is any number. Approximation of numbers is a characteristic of verbal communication, not of the numbers themselves, and should be clear from the context. If the precise amount is unimportant, any number may be approximate. – Jon Story Feb 07 '15 at 16:53
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    In the context of SF & Fantasy, there can be no higher authority that The Hobbit, in which Gandalf deliberately exploits the fact that "dozen" can reasonably mean anything from ten to fifteen. – Beta Feb 08 '15 at 19:36
  • While it doesn't mention "half dozen", I was immediately reminded of this XKCD cartoon. Basically, pretty much any number term will be used vaguely in general speech, and it's up to the listener to decide whether to take the value literally. – IMSoP Feb 08 '15 at 20:29
  • @IMSoP I actually referenced that article in my answer over on SF&F as an argument. – SQB Feb 08 '15 at 20:52

6 Answers6

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The most likely answer is: It Depends.

If I go to the store and buy half a dozen eggs, half a dozen donuts, and half a dozen muffins, I'm going to be extremely annoyed if when I get home I find only 5 eggs, 5 donuts, and 5 muffins in the packages.

On the other hand, if I am complaining about the length of the checkout line, I might say "look at this! half a dozen people waiting and they're not opening a new lane," when in fact there are only 4 people, including myself and the person who's actually being served. I am not doing a precise count, only a quick (and most likely exaggerated for the sake of complaining) estimation.

Similarly, at the party when I ask my friend who is clearly falling-down drunk "How many beers did you have?" and he says "Ummm.. half a dozen?", I will be inclined to think that half a dozen is actually 8 or 9.

So, context is king; if you are in a situation where something is normally expressed as an exact number, then "half a dozen" equals 6. But if you are in a situation where the exact number doesn't necessarily matter or may not be known, then "half a dozen" is "most likely somewhere between 4 and 8".

Hellion
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    This is true - though I think it is also a function of the size of the number, rather than a specific trait of the phrase "half dozen". Seems that accuracy decreases as the number increases (in standard conversational English). – Scot Feb 06 '15 at 20:18
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    @Scot - So you mean that a large half dozen might be imprecise, but not a small half dozen? – Hot Licks Feb 06 '15 at 22:06
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    @Scot: It's not so much the size of the number as its structure. "Five hundred twelve" probably means exactly 512 (or, if the value is not discrete, then something between 511.5 and 512.5), even though the much smaller "twenty" can be very approximate. "Dozen" is in the latter category. – ruakh Feb 06 '15 at 23:00
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    -1, These examples don't show that a dozen can be something other than 12. If I said there were "six people in line in front of me" when there were only four, then that would mean that I'm using hyperbole, not that six can also mean four. The drunk friend isn't using 'half a dozen' to mean eight or nine, he's just drunk and incorrect/unsure about the number of drinks. A half-dozen is exactly six. You can use the number six as an estimate when you're unsure of the exact total, that doesn't make 'six' an imprecise measure. – DCShannon Feb 07 '15 at 01:15
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    @DCShannon But I'm not very likely to say "there are 6 people in front of me" unless that's the actual number. Hellion's point is that that's how the phrase "half a dozen" is often used in practice; "half a dozen" to mean 5 is not necessarily hyperbole, while 6 to mean 5 must be an exaggeration. – cpast Feb 07 '15 at 04:54
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    @DCShannon No one ever said anything about a dozen not being 12. That's not what the question is about. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 07 '15 at 11:32
  • @DCShannon,it's more about what people mean when they say half a dozen; sometimes they mean the exact literal value, sometimes they don't. People are probably more likely to assume that "half a dozen" was an estimate than if an exact number was stated with confidence. – Hellion Feb 07 '15 at 13:54
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    I think my normal terminology for an unknown quantity between 4-8 would be "a half dozen or so"; a quantity between 8-15 would be "a dozen or so". Values 15-20 would be "maybe a dozen and a half", and values 20 and up would be "probably dozens", losing the "probably" around 30. Literally speaking, the term "dozens" should only refer to multiples of 12, but it's often used for any quantity over two dozen. – supercat Feb 07 '15 at 22:32
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Curiously, the OED says:

half-dozen | half-a-dozen

The half of a dozen; six (or about six).

In its quotes, it does not distinguish when it means 6 and when it means ~6.

But for dozen, the OED does not depart from 12.

dozen

A group or set of twelve. Originally as a n., followed by of, but often with ellipsis of of, and thus, in singular = twelve. Also, used colloq. in pl., either indefinitely or hyperbolically, for any moderately large number; cf. hundred n. and adj. 2. (Abbreviated doz.)

The OED gives no example of 'dozen' meaning 'about 12'.

Originally dozen was a noun, and so a dozen of eggs meant twelve eggs not somewhere between 10 and 14.

It does say that dozens can mean a moderately large number, just as hundreds can mean a large number.

This is not to get all prescriptive. People can use words in any manner they want. I'm just saying that a dozen equals twelve and a half dozen is six, or 'around six'.

Edit to add that a dozen dozen equals a gross, which is exactly 144, not around 144 or between, say, 122 and 166.

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pazzo
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5

It depends on the context.

If I'm buying eggs from a supermarket then I assume they're selling an exact quantity (i.e. 6).

In that context the reason for saying "a half dozen" is that eggs are traditionally sold by the dozen.

You quoted it being used in the following context:

Story goes, he made thirteen bullets. This hunter used the gun a half dozen times before he disappeared, the gun along with him...

In that context I assume it's imprecise.

If they had wanted to specify any precise number, they could have said, "This hunter used the gun six times...".

In that context the reason for saying "a half dozen" is that it's an (imprecise) estimate.

ChrisW
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    Except that, in that particular case, it was something of a math test, and for that one assumes precise values unless precisely specified otherwise. Other than that, I agree that a half-dozen or a dozen may not always be precise. – Hot Licks Feb 09 '15 at 00:27
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A 'dozen' is absolute. It means twelve. No generalities apply.

Mauli Davidson
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    A dozen is 12. Six is half a dozen. –  Feb 06 '15 at 17:46
  • Oh, yea. I was thinking of his half-dozen. Don't worry! My family is from Texas. – Mauli Davidson Feb 06 '15 at 17:47
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    If that's a joke or a sarcasm, would you let me in on it? I'm not American, and I rarely get the jokes about the different states without having them explained to me. :P –  Feb 06 '15 at 19:59
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    @SixthOfFour everything's bigger in Texas. – User1000547 Feb 06 '15 at 20:33
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    Even at the bakery? – SamB Feb 06 '15 at 20:45
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    @SamB at the bakery a dozen is still twelve and a "baker's dozen" is 13. – Digital Chris Feb 06 '15 at 21:04
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    Interestingly enough, in French, "une douzaine" means approximately 12, and that's quite useful when we want to speak about a number around 12 (or around 6 for "une demi-douzaine"). I wonder when and why the two languages started to differ. – Blackhole Feb 06 '15 at 22:00
  • Do the French treat "vingt" as only approximately equal to twenty? Amuricans do not usually count in groups of twenty as the French are commonly said to do. – undefined Feb 06 '15 at 23:52
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    @undefined: The "twenty" analogue of une douzaine is une vingtaine. – ruakh Feb 06 '15 at 23:59
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    Actually, it seems that it is French that has diverged from the original Latin "duodecim". – March Ho Feb 07 '15 at 07:22
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    @undefined They used to: "Four score and seven years ago ..."; and "The days of our years are threescore years and ten ...". I'd translate "une vingtaine" as "twenty-odd" ... e.g. there'll be twenty-odd people there (or you might equally and imprecisely say, "there'll be a couple of dozen"). But vingt is precise whereas vingtaine is an estimate ... like the difference between "five people" (precise) and "a handful of people" (an approximation). – ChrisW Feb 07 '15 at 10:50
  • @Blackhole That looks like the beginning of an answer by itself. – SQB Feb 07 '15 at 15:48
  • @SamB a bakers dozen refers to the practice of bakers making 13 rolls instead of 12, so that they can use the 13th to ensure the first 12 are up to the legally required minimum weight. It's unrelated, for all practical purposes, and is really just a colloquial way to refer to 13 (occasionally to avoid saying the number, due to superstition) – Jon Story Feb 07 '15 at 16:55
  • @JonStory: I always understood it to be “throwing in a little extra”—a lagniappe. – Jon Purdy Feb 07 '15 at 23:40
  • Yeah, that's one metaphorical usage which stems from the baker throwing in a little extra to make up the weight :) the point is that it's very unambiguously 13, not 12. – Jon Story Feb 07 '15 at 23:42
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    @MauliDavidson Perhaps you could edit this answer to address the question's half-dozen specifically? – Andrew Leach Feb 09 '15 at 09:40
  • [Macmillan] allows the broadened, looser usage: (1a a set of about 12 things or people. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 08 '21 at 11:11
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A gross is always 144, a score is always 20, a bakers dozen is always 13, a dozen is always 12, and half a dozen is always six, and so on and so forth, but . . .

We do not always use numbers precisely, leaving aside errors (including fencepost errors like the mentioned supermarket line) there are three ways that numbers are used less precisely.

  1. Measuring the count: discrete items can always be counted (I have five magic beans), but sometimes an exact count is not needed (put two and a half cups of beans in cold water and let soak). This leaves you with all the accuracy and precision issues of all measurement. Often you are only concerned with orders of magnitude, less than half a dozen, a little more than a dozen, about a gross, more than I wanted to count, More than I could count.

  2. Symbolic numbers: A classic example is the three wise-men bearing gifts to Christ. There is no count given in the bible about how many there were. we only know fore sure that there was more than one. Most scholars speculate somewhere between six and twenty. So why three? It does make staging a play easier in that each has a unique prop corresponding to each gift, but the main reason is that three is considered a holy number and therefore appropriate for gifts to Christ. Also ponder the seven wonders of the world, top ten lists, and the seven deadly sins.

  3. Place holders: Where a number is needed but the value is not known or does not matter. See also http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/R/random-numbers.html and http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/for-values-of.html

hildred
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As Mauli Davidson said, it is an absolute quantity. However, "dozen" is sometimes generalised. I think it is quite common that people use it flexibly.

lennyklb
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