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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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baker's dozen
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A term now for 13 (in the past often 14), being the number of loaves or rolls given by a baker for the price of a dozen. The usual explanation, deriving from the 1864 edition of Hotten's Slang Dictionary, is that this was a precaution by bakers terrified of punitive laws against giving short measure. The earlier entry in Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue ('Fourteen; that number of rolls allowed to the purchasers of a dozen') suggests a much more likely origin as a discount on quantity.
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