Dozen
Count · Also called: score, gross, great gross
That is
12
1 dozen (dozen)
- Period: medieval to today
- Region: the UK
- Goods: eggs, buns, small goods
Values
| Value | That is | Period | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| dozen | 12 | medieval to today | eggs, buns, small goods · the UK |
| score | 20 | 13th century onwards | livestock, wholesale · England |
| gross | 144 | early 15th century to today | small manufactured goods · the UK |
What the unit was used for
These are counting units rather than measures, and they exist because counting many identical small things by ones is slow and easy to get wrong.
The score, 20, comes from Old Norse skor, a notch, from skera, to cut: a drover counted twenty aloud and then cut a notch in a tally stick before starting again.
English borrowed the word in the Danelaw period and by the 13th century it was the ordinary word for twenty, which is why the Gettysburg Address opens with four score and seven.
The dozen comes through Old French douzaine from Latin duodecim, and its use is arithmetical: 12 divides by 2, 3, 4 and 6 where 10 divides only by 2 and 5, which matters when goods are split between buyers.
The gross, a dozen dozen, appears in English in the early 15th century from Old French grosse douzaine and was the wholesale packing unit for buttons, pens and screws.
In the system
12 dozen = 1 gross; 12 gross = 1 great gross (1728)