Tennis
[ Issue 17 ]

The Word "Tennis"

Here is another in an occasional series called Interesting Origins, in which R.K. Sadler provides a note on the derivation of the word "tennis" and another word related to the sport.

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Interesting Origins — R.K. Sadler

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The word “tennis” comes from the French word tenez meaning “Hold it!” or “See what you can do with that!”

Tennis revolves around us trying to do something with the shots of our opponent.

Because tennis originated in France, some of our tennis words are French in origin. Who would believe that “love” came from the French l’oeuf, meaning “egg”?

If you have a nil score, your score of 0 looks like an egg.