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There's a "hot question" at the moment about the use of the apostrophe in the phrase Baker's Dozen, and it got me to wondering: where did this phrase originate?

Did bakers really offer 13 in a dozen? Is it a joke about bakers being bad at maths? If bakers did offer 13 in a dozen, then why did they start doing it?

Community
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Django Reinhardt
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5 Answers5

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Have you checked Wikipedia?

The oldest known source, but questionable explanation for the expression "baker's dozen" dates to the 13th century [...]. Bakers who were found to have shortchanged customers (some variations say that they would sell hollow bread) could be subject to severe punishment. To guard against the punishment of losing a hand to an axe, a baker would give 13 for the price of 12, to be certain of not being known as a cheat. [...]

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
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Michael Lorton
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    It's not just bakers, and it's not just a dozen. See Wikipedia on lagniappe, which also has a fascinating etymology. I don't think the custom needs an elaborate explanation. – Peter Shor Apr 21 '12 at 11:00
  • @PeterShor Oh wow, I love that word, lagniappe! It does have a wonderful etymology! I first heard it when I was reading a travel guide for visitors to New Orleans and Louisiana in general. I agree with you, by the way. A baker's dozen, lagniappe, a "bonus round": All are forms of "x+1 for the price of x". It isn't even necessarily "plus one", just "something extra". – Ellie Kesselman Apr 21 '12 at 11:35
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    If you are talking about the 13th century or even the 16th then the packing of items on a tray or sheet is an anachronism. In these time and much later bread was baked on the oven floor and set with a peel. I doubt if the technology for steel trays was developed until the 18 century at the earliest. – PurplePilot Apr 21 '12 at 12:44
  • @PeterShor That's only one possible explanation. It may have had literally nothing to do with bakers giving things away for free. – Django Reinhardt Apr 21 '12 at 20:51
  • It seems pretty well documented that bakers gave away stuff for free. See this website. – Peter Shor Apr 21 '12 at 21:47
  • Lagniappe implies a businessman trying to exceed a customer's expectations. That link seems to suggest it was done entirely to make sure that they weren't fined to selling bread that was too light. I suppose it's similar, though. – Django Reinhardt Apr 22 '12 at 01:47
  • I always thought it simply if one of the twelve was burnt or something, then the thirteenth could replace it, and the customer would get the 12 he asked for, and not have to wait for the baker to bake another if one did burn? – Jonathan. Apr 22 '12 at 07:59
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    Like @PurplePilot said, the geometrical explanation is stuff and nonsense: not all baked items are round, and they didn't use rectangular baking pans until many centuries after the term 'baker's dozen' was first used. – Marthaª Apr 30 '12 at 15:19
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    And in fact the balderdash explanation has since been removed from Wikipedia, leaving just the accepted (although also doubtful) shortchanging explanation. – Marthaª Apr 30 '12 at 16:14
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    Following the deletion on Wikipedia, I have removed the speculative explanation on our site as well. I see no other option short of deleting the answer wholesale. – RegDwigнt Apr 30 '12 at 21:58
  • @Marthaª -- what is doubtful about the shortchanging explanation? It's pretty routine to slightly over-fulfill orders (and to give grace periods in the sale of timed services) in situations where the marginal cost of the goods is very low compared to the value of reputation and the difficulty of acquiring customers. – Michael Lorton May 06 '12 at 18:58
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    @Malvolio: the whole "they added an extra loaf as insurance against getting their hand cut off" premise sets off all my urban legend detectors, because it sounds like typical middle-ages-bashing ("Look how cruel and nasty they were! And they used a lot of spices to hide the taste of spoiled meat!" [1. Spices were several order of magnitude more expensive than meat, and 2. Spoiled meat would have made them just as physically ill as it would make us, no matter how the well the taste was disguised.]) – Marthaª May 07 '12 at 14:48
  • I loved that mathematical answer. Oh well. – Django Reinhardt May 10 '12 at 10:38
  • I've removed the commentary from this answer as it doesn't really belong in the answer itself. – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 May 23 '12 at 14:31
  • Incidentally, the concept that Malvolio correctly points out above is one of the first instances of "trademark" in history. – Amory Aug 27 '13 at 03:21
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As ‘Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable’ explains:

In earlier times when a heavy penalty was inflicted for short weight, bakers used to give a surplus number of loaves, called the in-bread, to avoid all risk of incurring a fine. The 13th was the vantage loaf.

Barrie England
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  • Oh, I like that too: The "vantage loaf". It reminds me of Yahrzeit (Yarhzeit? no, Yahrzeit, I think) candles, though tangentially. They must have sufficient wax to burn continuously for a full 24 hours. I've noticed that they usually are good for at least 26, even 30 hours though, as I have used them during power outages, not just for commemoration of the dead. – Ellie Kesselman Apr 21 '12 at 11:41
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    I suppose it should be spelt "Jahrzeit" – Paola Apr 21 '12 at 23:13
  • "We picked up one excellent word — a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word — 'lagniappe'." -- Mark Twain – Michael Lorton Apr 23 '12 at 05:13
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On Oxford Dictionary we can read:

baker's dozen: a group of thirteen (= one more than a dozen, which is twelve)

Origin.
late 16th century: from the former bakers' custom of adding an extra loaf to a dozen sold, this constituting the retailer's profit.

More historical reasons are illustrated on Wikipedia with regard to "Worshipful Company of Bakers":

The Worshipful Company of Bakers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Bakers' Guild is known to have existed in the twelfth century. From the Corporation of London, the Guild received the power to enforce regulations for baking, known as the Assize of Bread and Ale. The violations included selling short-weight bread and the addition of sand instead of flour. (So that they could avoid punishment for inadvertently selling a short-weight bread, bakers added a thirteenth loaf to a dozen, giving rise to the term baker's dozen.) The Bread Assize remained in force until 1863, when Parliament repealed it.

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I was always told this was the baker cooks 13 - 12 for the customer and one for himself. That way if the batch came out bad, he can easily find out and pitch it before it gets to the customer.

Chris Moschini
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I understand this differently. From what I was taught, the baker's dozen resulted from compassion.

The extra item was added by the baker so the households slave/servant would be able to consume one of whatever was being purchased, while walking home with a bag full of food for their master/employer.

pbr
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