Why do they say "love fifteen," in tennis?
asked Apr 12, 2011 at 17:44
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2@Danny they say both, but they're not equivalent.– DustyCommented Apr 12, 2011 at 17:51
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You have had explanations of love. The fifteen may come from a clock and means you have a quarter of the points needed to win the game. Or it may come from positions in the French jeu de paume.– HenryCommented Apr 12, 2011 at 23:57
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3To a tennis player, love means nothing — as many adoring fans have found, to their sorrow.– MT_HeadCommented Jul 6, 2012 at 16:16
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6 Answers
"Love" is one of the ways you can read the number "0". So "fifteen love" means "The score is 15-0".
There are many theories about its origin. One is (taken from Wikipedia - but you'll find this anywhere):
The origin of the use of "love" for zero is also disputed. It is possible that it derives from the French expression for "the egg" (l'œuf) because an egg looks like the number zero.
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1The l'oeuf explanation is the one I've always heard. It is interesting to note that the French simply use zéro when keeping score, and keep les oeufs in the kitchen.– HaLCommented Apr 12, 2011 at 17:56
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@HaL: Ahah :D well there was another one which said it was taken from Dutch.– AlenannoCommented Apr 12, 2011 at 18:01
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3Always heard this explained with "l'oeuf" like everybody else. Tennis goes back a long way in France, originating as something akin to handball in the 12th-13th centuries, and acquiring (roughly) its current form circa 1625 in England. It seems intuitively obvious that the game's terminology would borrow from French and "l'oeuf" maps neatly over our sports term "goose egg" for "zero." (goo.gl/ZBVZg) Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 18:32
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3The French don't use love, but more oddly they don't use deuce (à deux) either.– HenryCommented Apr 12, 2011 at 23:51
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1@Henry strangely enough they don't use the word "tennez" from which "Tennis" derives, they say "Tennis" ;) Commented Aug 9, 2012 at 12:21
It seems to have been adapted from the phrase 'to play for love (of the game)' (i.e. to play for nothing). Although the theory is often heard that it represents the French word l'oeuf, meaning 'an egg' (from the resemblance between an egg and a nought) this seems unlikely.
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1I find it equally unlikely that they felt that people who actually scored points no longer enjoy playing. I guess this will have to remain a mystery.– T.E.D.Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 16:02
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1@T.E.D., I doubt that’s what’s implied. Rather, the point is that you are playing for the points that you have, and of course to turn them into a win. But when you have no points, you have no points to play for, so you can only play out of love for the game. Still an odd, roundabout way of saying things (and an odd thing to say), but not quite so odd as to indicate that you stop loving the game as soon as you get points. Commented Dec 22, 2013 at 14:51
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@T.J.Crowder Fixed the link. If you can find a better answer from a more authoritative source, please submit a new answer.– chosterCommented Sep 8, 2015 at 14:17
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Nice one updating the link. That page surprises me -- it offers no supporting evidence of any kind, is littered with ads, and yet claims association with the Oxford University Press. I would expect better from the OUP. Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 14:22
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The OED says nothing about l'oeuf in its etymology, but it does seem to place some credence on the "playing for love (rather than money)" idea.– WS2Commented Jul 3, 2022 at 21:49
"Love" means zero. In tennis, the server's score is given first, so "love-fifteen" means the server has no points, the opponent has fifteen.
The score in a tennis game progresses from love to fifteen to thirty to forty to game. If both players achieve forty then it's called a deuce. A player must win a game by two points, so the player who scores the next point is said to have "advantage." If the opposing player scores the next point, they go back to deuce.
It's a quirky scoring procedure. Its roots derive from French, not English, so I feel within my rights to declare ignorance without penalty at this point. :-)
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4So it's quirky because it's french? How typically british... ;-) Commented Apr 13, 2011 at 0:16
In tennis, scoring is a bit...unorthodox. In particular, love is equivalent to 0 points scored in a game, while fifteen actually means you've scored one point.
Love fifteen effectively indicates that the serving player has 0 points, while the receiving player has one.
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2+1 for calling it "...unorthodox" (the pause is significant, right?) Commented Apr 13, 2011 at 0:17
Saying that a player has scored zero seems pretty offensive. It makes him look like an incompetent fool. As long as the game goes on, the tables may turn anytime.
To make the player at the loosing end look good, his score is said to be 'love' i.e. he is playing for the love of the game and it doesn't matter if he is unable to score.
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This answer adds nothing new. May I suggest looking over our selection of unanswered or scarcely answered questions, where more input would be welcome. Commented Oct 24, 2013 at 10:40
Just to add another queer theory, sometimes you have word pairs where the consonants are arranged from left to right and from right to left as in
Latin form-a, consonants F R M
Greek morf-áe, consonants M R F
In love /laf/ you have L F
In faillir you have F L.
French faillir means to fail. Sense here: to fail to make a point.
Please don't ask me why there are right-left variants and why love may be read backwards to make sense. I don't know. The only thing I know for sure there are right-left variants, quite a number.
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Do you have a citation for this, or is it original to you? Either way, not sure how it answers the question. Commented Jul 4, 2015 at 18:55
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It is my idea. Love for cero points makes no sense at all. One explanation is French l'oeuf, because the form reminds of cero/naught, one explanation is to play for love. One explanation as queer as the other. And I see that love can be a right-left variant with the sense of fault/no point. I know my explanation seems curious as right-left etymology is no known thing, but it is no more curious than the other explanations.– rogermueCommented Jul 4, 2015 at 19:04
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Can you provide any other examples? It seems a bit far-fetched to me. Commented Jul 5, 2015 at 2:41
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German Loch rl English hole (rl means right left connection,) - G Topf rl G Pot, E pot - G läut-en rl E to toll (a bell) and about 200 others, pairs between various languages.– rogermueCommented Jul 5, 2015 at 2:54
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Sounds like you are trying to explain a simple coincidence in spelling. The sounds came before the spelling, and there is no sound like English "h" in "loch." Regardless, this is not a discussion board and not an appropriate place to mount a discussion of your theory. Commented Jul 5, 2015 at 16:30