Why 1-0 is called one love

**EyyT** · Posted 11-23-2020

And anything-0 is anything-love, why love?

**sampletext** · Posted 11-23-2020

If I remember correctly, it is because l'oeuf sounds like love in English. l'oeuf is French for the "the egg" which is what they called zero in tennis (but French has the word zero for zero, so I'm not sure why they used l'oeuf). That tradition was kept and later impelemented into table tennis.

**Mytoman** · Posted 11-23-2020

This is the most popular theory. Websters dictionary says that it is most likely wrong..., but I still like it! The same goes for the origin of tennis - Tenez! Take that!!
As far as I can see, nobody really knows.....

In football you say nil-nil....

Originally Posted by sampletext

If I remember correctly, it is because l'oeuf sounds like love in English. l'oeuf is French for the "the egg" which is what they called zero in tennis (but French has the word zero for zero, so I'm not sure why they used l'oeuf). That tradition was kept and later impelemented into table tennis.

**Dr Evil** · Posted 11-23-2020

The egg theory is what I've heard most. There's French L'oeuf (zero on the scoreboard resembling an egg), and Latin ab ovo (from the beginning) via Italian L'uovo. But nobody knows for sure.

**Tinykin** · Posted 11-23-2020

Also match officials don't say "Deuce" in TT. Why?

**Mytoman** · Posted 11-23-2020

Just to unlock an open door....:

In tennis you only have the score for 0, 15, 30, 40, game.
Then you need deuce and advantage to be able to score the two clear points.
In TT we have 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, ->.... We actually score the points by numbers

.
Easy and totally clear!

(And of course, from the upcoming weekend you only need one clear point to win in most of the games.., but not all, and not the same system in all matches... So then in most situations (not all), you wouldn't need deuce anyhow.)...