Dozen

==Etymology==
The [[English language|English]] word ''dozen'' comes from the old form ''douzaine'', a [[French language|French]] word meaning {{gloss|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 {{lang|fr|[[Dictionnaire de l'Académie française]]}}).<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/24/D0372400.html |title=Bartleby |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210005528/http://www.bartleby.com/61/24/D0372400.html |archive-date=December 10, 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/dozen | title =Dozen | work = Free Dictionary | publisher = Merriam-Webster | access-date= 2011-10-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/dozen?view=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221221/http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/dozen?view=uk |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 26, 2007 | work =Oxford Dictionaries Online |publisher=Ask Oxford |title=dozen |access-date=2013-01-31}}</ref> This French word<ref>{{cite web | url =http://www.patrimoine-de-france.org/mots/mots-acade-30-14691.html#mot-2 | title =Douzain, Douzaine, Douze, Douze-huit, Douzième, Douzièmement, Dox(o)-, Doxographe, Doxologie, Doyen | publisher =Patrimoine de France | access-date =2011-10-28 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20110929162634/http://www.patrimoine-de-france.org/mots/mots-acade-30-14691.html#mot-2 | archive-date =2011-09-29 | url-status =dead }}</ref> is a derivation from the [[cardinal number]] ''douze'' ({{gloss|twelve}}, from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|duodĕcim}}) and the [[collective number|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 [[cognate]]s in [[Spanish language|Spanish]]: ''docena'',<ref>{{cite web| url= http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=docena | publisher =Real Academia Española | work = Diccionario Usual | language= es| title = docena |access-date= 2011-10-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=doce |title= doce | publisher = Real Academia Española | work = Diccionario Usual | language= es| access-date = 2011-10-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=-ena | title = -ena | publisher = Real Academia Española | work = Diccionario Usual |language= es|access-date= 2011-10-28}}</ref> ''quincena'', ''veintena'', ''centena'', etc. English ''dozen'', French {{lang|fr|douzaine}}, Catalan ''dotzena'', Portuguese "dúzia", Persian dowjin "دوجین", Arabic {{lang|ar|درزن}} ({{transl|ar|durzen}}), Turkish "düzine", Hindi darjan "दर्जन", German {{lang|de|Dutzend}}, Dutch {{lang|nl|dozijn}}, Italian {{lang|it|dozzina}} and Polish ''tuzin'', are also used as indefinite [[Quantifier (linguistics)|quantifiers]] to mean {{gloss|about twelve}} or {{gloss|many}} (as in "a dozen times", "dozens of people").

A confusion may arise with the Anglo-Norman ''dizeyne'' (French ''dixaine'' or ''dizaine'') a tithing, or group of ten households<ref>{{Citation | publisher = Oxford | title = English Dictionary | contribution = meaning #4}}.</ref> — dating from the earlier English 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'.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=William Lauriston Melville |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofpolicei00leewuoft |title=A History of Police in England |publisher=Methuen & Co |year=1901 |location=London |pages=121–122|isbn=9780875851198 }}</ref>