"Love" in tennis

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 17 Mar 2001 Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>    THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, weekend section on Friday, had a piece on
> the etymology of the "love" score ("nothing" or "zero") in tennis.
> One theory is that it´s French (l'oeuf?), similar to the "bagel."
>    If Grant Barrett wants to check it out, anything on tennis in the
> 1800s is worth reading.  One book that might help is TENNIS, PRATIQUES
> ET SOCIETE DE LA FRANCE A LA GIRONDE (1995) by Martine Reneaud.

I don't think tennis in the 1800s is relevant at all, since the term is
attested in card games back to the early 1700s.

Fred Shapiro


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