<P> A baker's dozen, also known as a big or long dozen, is 13 . Varying by country, some products are packaged or sold by the dozen, often foodstuff (a dozen eggs). Dozen may also be used to express a large number of items as in "several dozen" (ex. dozens of people came to the party). </P> <P> The English word dozen comes from the old form douzaine, a French word meaning "a group of twelve" ("Assemblage de choses de même nature au nombre de douze"--(translation: A group of twelve things of the same nature as defined in the eighth edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française). This French word is a derivation from the cardinal number douze ("twelve", from Latin duodĕcim) and the collective suffix - aine (from Latin - ēna), a suffix also used to form other words with similar meanings such as quinzaine (a group of fifteen), vingtaine (a group of twenty), centaine (a group of one hundred), etc . These French words have synonymous cognates in Spanish: docena, quincena, veintena, centena, etc . English dozen, French douzaine, Catalan dotzena, Persian dowjin "دوجین", Arabic durzen "درزن", German Dutzend, Dutch dozijn, Italian dozzina and Polish tuzin, are also used as indefinite quantifiers to mean "about twelve" or "many" (as in "a dozen times", "dozens of people"). </P> <P> A confusion may arise with the Anglo - Norman dizeyne (French dixaine or dizaine) a tithing, or group of ten households--dating from the late Anglo - Saxon system of grouping households into tens and hundreds for the purposes of law, order and mutual surety (see Tithing). In some texts this' dizeyne' may be rendered as' dozen' . </P> <P> A baker's dozen, devil's dozen, long dozen, or long measure is 13, one more than a standard dozen . The broadest use of baker's dozen today is simply a group of thirteen objects (often baked goods). The term has meant different things over the last few centuries . </P>

Where does ten to the dozen come from