Why is zero called love in tennis?

Tennis is the only sport where having nothing is described as love. It sounds romantic, or possibly passive-aggressive. For over a century, the most popular explanation has involved a French egg. Unfortunately for egg fans, there is no evidence it ever happened.

The short answer

The origin is genuinely uncertain, but the Oxford English Dictionary links it to the English phrase for love, meaning to play for nothing, with no stakes. The famous theory that it comes from French l’oeuf, egg, because a zero looks like one, has no documentary support.

The real story

Lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower has pointed out that using love for a zero score goes back to the late 18th century, and that it appeared in card games such as whist before it reached tennis. Modern lawn tennis was only patented in 1874, so the word was already waiting for it.

That fits the for love explanation. If you play for love, you play for nothing. A score of nothing becomes love. Sheidlower considers this the most plausible theory, since English speakers were using the idiom long before tennis caught on.

So where did the egg come from? Linguist Ben Zimmer tracked down the earliest version he could find: a letter by Alex D. Milne in Scottish Notes and Queries in September 1887. Milne suggested the egg idea with considerable confidence but no documentary proof, partly by analogy with billiards terms borrowed from French and partly because cricketers called a zero score a duck’s egg. Zimmer has called the theory a sturdy canard despite zero evidence.

And the twist: the French do not use l’oeuf for zero in tennis. Sheidlower notes it makes little sense for English players to have borrowed a French expression that the French themselves did not use. Merriam-Webster’s editors have also described the egg story as a popular fallacy, saying they found no evidence oeuf was ever used for a zero score.

Why people get it wrong

The egg theory has everything a good folk etymology needs. It is visual: a zero really does look like an egg. It has a real parallel in English, where goose egg and duck’s egg mean zero. And it borrows the glamour of French, which already gave tennis a lot of its tradition.

The for love explanation is duller and harder to picture, so it loses the popularity contest. But duller and documented beats charming and invented.

Historians still say they cannot be completely sure. Meanwhile, players have quietly added another food to the menu: a 6-0 set is often called a bagel, a term that emerged in the 1970s.

“Love means nothing in tennis. And so, it turns out, does the egg story.”