Tennis originated from a 12th century court-based game called paume. The scoring in tennis, particularly the no-point term "love," is peculiar. One leading theory about the origin of "love" is that it is a spin off of, or perhaps English mispronunciation of, the French word l'oeuf, meaning egg. The shape of an egg resembles a zero, which a suitable way to represent no score. The only other leading theory about the origin of "love" is that the people who play tennis solely for the "love of the game" play it for nothing. In other words, even if people tirelessly play tennis and cannot seem to earn a point, at least they have love (for the game, that is).
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