Forms: 1 bæcere, 3–5 bakere, 4 bachare, 5–7 backer, 4– baker. [OE. bæcere, f. bacan to bake + -ER1; cogn. with ON. bakari, Sw. bagare, Da. bagere, OHG. bacher; OS. bakkeri, Du. bakker, G. bäcker:—OTeut. *bak(k)arjo-z.]
1. One who bakes; spec. one whose business it is to make bread.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Colloquy, Q. 5. Sume cypmenn, sume scewyrhtan, sealteras, bæceras. Q. 54. Hwæt seʓst þu, bæcere?
c. 1300. Men Lif, 16, in E. E. P. (1862), 155. Hail be ȝe bakers wiþ ȝur louis smale.
c. 1300. Relig. Songs, vii. 35. Alle theos false chepmen, the feond heom wule habbe, Bachares and brueres.
1466. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 211. To … the backers wyffe, for v. mennes borde.
c. 1500. Arnold, Chron. (1811), 9. That backers or myllars stelying paste or mele be drawen vpon an hyrdel.
1598. Stow, Survey (1633), 208. A Pillorie, for the punishment of Bakers, offending in the assise of bread.
1602. Shaks., Ham., IV. v. 42. They say the Owle was a Bakers daughter.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., Wks. 1873, II. 122. Are not Bakers armes the skales of Iustice? yet is not their bread light?
1768. Smollett, Humph. Cl., Let. 8 June. The miller or the baker is obliged to poison them and their families, in order to live by his profession.
1847. Kinglake, Eöthen, xvii. The very first baker of bread that ever lived must have done his work exactly as the Arab does at this day.
2. ‘A small portable tin oven in which baking is performed.’ In U.S. (Webster.)
3. An artificial salmon fly in angling.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, x. (1880), 345. The Baker is another good general fly.
4. Proverbs. (As to the Pillory see 1598 in 1.)
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 47. I feare we parte not yéet, Quoth the baker to the pylorie.
1660. Howell, Eng. Prov., 11. Ile take no leave of you, quoth the Baker to the Pillory.
1857. N. & Q., 21 March, 228/2. Pull devil, pull baker, in England’s the cry.
5. Comb., as baker-feet, -legs, -knees, baker’s knee, names of deformities of the lower extremities incident to bakers; baker-legged, -kneed a., having these deformities; baker’s itch, a species of tetter or psoriasis to which the hands of bakers and cooks are liable; baker’s salt, an appellation of commercial carbonate of ammonia, used instead of yeast in pastry and bread.
1611. Cotgr., Iarretier … Baker-legd, that goes in at the knees.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 186. Baker-kneed signifies effeminate.
1656. Du Gard, Gate Lat. Unl., § 292. Hee that is baker-legged, rub’s his knees against one another.
1656. Artif. Handsom. (1662), 79. The unhandsome warpings of bow Leggs and baker Feet.
1659. Lady Alimony, V. v. in Hazl., Dodsl., XIV. 361. His puny baker-legs.
1784. J. Barry, Lect. Art, ii. (1848), 94. Knocked or baker knees.
1871. Figure Training, 39. Baker’s knee, as it is called, or an inclining inwards of the right knee-joint until it closely resembles the right side of a letter K, is the almost certain penalty of habitually bearing any burden of bulk in the right hand.
6. Baker’s dozen: thirteen. (See last quot.)
1599. J. Cooke, Tu Quoque, in Dodsl., O. P. (1780), VII. 49. Mine’s a baker’s dozen: Master Bubble, tell your money.
1611. in Florio.
1733. Fielding, Quix., III. vi. I dare swear there were a good round baker’s dozen at least.
1859. Riley, Liber Albus, Pref. 68. These dealers … [Hucksters] on purchasing their bread from the bakers, were privileged by law to receive thirteen batches for twelve, and this would seem to have been the extent of their profits. Hence the expression, still in use, ‘A baker’s dozen.’
Bakerdom, condition of a baker. Bakership, skill as a baker.
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 April, 3/1. The first baker … was about to produce a card to prove his bakerdom and respectability.
