The Dozen Variations

Over in the #tildetown IRC we were discussing the dozen and its variations. Along with the traditional baker’s dozen, skalnik mentioned the long dozen and metric dozen. Here is a full listing of the dozens variations. Half-dozen: 6. Self-explanatory, really. Baker’s half-dozen: 7. Gotta throw in that extra one (see baker’s dozen). Metric dozen: 10. Blame the French. Short dozen: 11. Don’t bring up its height, it has a complex. Dozen: 12. The original: often imitated, never duplicated. Baker’s dozen: 13. Bakers threw in an extra to avoid heavy penalties. Long dozen: 14. Webster lists “long dozen” as 13, but it’s already got a name. Besides, 14 is longer. Texas dozen: 15. Everything is bigger in Texas. Dobizen: 16. Like kibibyte for 1024 bytes. Gross: 144. A dozen dozens. I like to think it’s like Terry, not disgusting. Unless you eat that many donuts, I guess. This page will be updated as more dozen variations are discovered. Have you found one? Contact me! Further reading XKCD (of…