Ten to the dozen

Posted by David Ingram on September 29, 1999

SBS is Australia's national multicultiural and multilingual broadcaster. One of our Cantonese broadcasters runs a weekly "Idioms" segment on his program and was interested in the derivation of the phrase "going ten to the dozen". It means going very fast or working very hard. What's the derivation and what is its relation to the posted phrase "nineteen to the dozen"?