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tennis words
Message de jeanyves15 posté le 15-04-2005 à 10:13:23 (S | E | F | I)
hi, I'm jean yves and I'm Belgian.
where does the word " LOVE " come from in a tennis match.
It means " zero " or " nought ", but why " LOVE " ?
Message de jeanyves15 posté le 15-04-2005 à 10:13:23 (S | E | F | I)
hi, I'm jean yves and I'm Belgian.
where does the word " LOVE " come from in a tennis match.
It means " zero " or " nought ", but why " LOVE " ?
Réponse: tennis words de marie37400, postée le 15-04-2005 à 11:58:49 (S | E)
Hi Jean-Yves,
An interesting question. Here is what I found about it :
"it can be traced to the 17th-century expression "play for love," meaning 'to play without any wager, for nothing'. It is this meaning of 'nothing' that love takes on when used in tennis--and in certain card games, as well as in the occasional British football commentary (their sort, not ours). The proper way to describe a score of zero to zero is to say love-all. Of course, American football won't stand for that sort of outcome."
Have a good weekend
Marie
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Je me suis permis de supprimer ton deuxième post (double emploi dans le forum "professeurs")
Edité par marie37400 le 15-04-2005 12:03
Réponse: tennis words de magmatic_rock, postée le 15-04-2005 à 12:27:17 (S | E)
Hi jean-yves,
It's true it's very peculiar for us because we always say "zéro" for a football match or tennis etc.... But english say "nil" when a football team has 0 and "love" when a tennis player has 0! It's like that! Wh? I don't know! I hope I help you a little bit.
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