When bakers talk about retarding, they're not being insulting. They're talking about slowing down the fermentation process.

Retarding is the process in which a baker uses refrigeration to slow down yeast activity. This has a couple of benefits, one of which is to get better flavor out of the finished bread. The longer the yeast can ferment, the more organic acid is produced, which makes the bread taste better and also leads to a longer shelf life.

The other benefit of retarding dough is to give the baker more time to work. For a home baker, if something comes up to where you just don't have time to finish your bread, uou can refrigerate your dough just after mixing or just after the final shaping.

Mix the dough as usual, then refrigerate for up to 12 hours, after which you can let it come back to room temperature and continue the first fermentation. After the first fermentation and shaping, the dough can be refrigerated again (for up to 12 hours). Just allow the dough to come back to room temp and finish the final fermentation and then bake as usual. Just make sure that the dough is well covered in plastic before refrigeration to prevent a skin from forming.For a professional baker, retarding dough allows the same benefit for different reasons. Bakers can get more production done by retarding a dough overnight and then baking it in the morning. Very small baking operations retard dough overnight in a refrigerator, but larger operations may have a proof box/retarder. The proof box/retarder looks like a refrigerator, but it has two settings: warm and moist, and cool. Each proof box/retarder has temperature settings and moisture settings so the baker can control how warm and moist or cool the interior environment is. Many have automatic timers so you can set it to retard overnight and then switch to the proof box setting at a specified time so the dough is ready to bake first thing in the morning. It may not be strictly necessary, but it's a great tool to have (if your bakery can afford it).