Dozen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dozen is another word for the number twelve. It originates from the Latin word duodecim. The dozen may be one of the earliest primitive groupings, perhaps because there are approximately a dozen cycles of the moon in a cycle of the sun. The use of twelve as a base number, known as the duodecimal system, probably originated in Mesopotamia. Twelve dozen (122 = 144) are known as a gross. Twelve gross (123 = 1,728) is called a great gross, a term most often used when shipping or buying items in bulk. A great hundred is 120 or ten dozen (a dozen for each finger on both hands).
The dozen is convenient because its multipliers and multiples are convenient: 12 = 3 × 2 × 2, and 360 = 30 × 12. The French word douzaine means "about twelve" and is part of a family of words with similar meanings, e.g. vingtaine - "about 20" centaine - "about 100" etc. A baker's dozen, also known as a long dozen, is thirteen.
