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Comment by Jedd | Hacker News Reader

> 12ths are handy enough that we have a special word for “12 of something” (dozen) even though our numbering system is decimal.

My understanding is that the etymology of dozen is originally traced back to duodecim (Latin for twelve) via French dozeine. Which is interesting, but doesn't really explain why it's special beyond your observation that it's a highly composite, but comfortably small, number.

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> dozeine.

French nitpicker here. We now write it "douzaine" but spellings have changed through the ages.

Yep. Most of the "French" words in English (beef, butcher, danger, very, act...) actually come from dialects brought over by the Normans when they conquered England in 1066. That's closer on the timeline to Latin than modern French.

It's special because we don't have a word for, e.g., "13 of something", say, "trezen".

"baker's dozen"

That's two words.

> It's special because we don't have a word for, e.g., "13 of something", say, "trezen".

Hmm, how about 14 of something?

You have a fortnight to respond. Though if you take about a sennight longer to think about it, you'll still get a good score.

Modern French allows the "aine" suffix to be applied to many numbers, meaning "a group of X." I've mostly heard it used with 10 ("dixaine") or 12 ("douzaine"), though if you asked for a "treizaine" (13) of something, you would be understood.

It is interesting that "dozen" made it into everyday English but other group sizes did not.

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