It always baffled me as to why scores in tennis were kept 0-15-30-40-Game. Wouldnt 0-15-30-45-Game be more logical or for that matter 1-2-3-Game?
I would be really greatful if fellow dopers help me understand this long time mystery(for me).
Thanks in advance.
Originally, it was 0-15-30-45-game. People started saying “40” for “45” because it was quicker.
There is no reason why any of this has to be logical.
And to add to the confusion, it’s not “0” it’s “love.”
Just to add to this - the origin of this phrase is that it comes from the French “le ouef” meaning “egg”.
Grim
It’s almost like the scoring is based on a clock’s second-hand. Nitpick: It’s l’oeuf.
This site claims that the origins of the scoring system of tennis have been forgotten, but it is generally believed that a clock face was used to keep track of the score during a game.
The reason why it makes sense not to use 1-2-3-Game is because then you might get confused between the point score and the game score when you read it out (“Federer is ahead 30-15 and 3-2” is clearer than Federer is ahead 2-1 and 3-2").
Julie
Here is another interesting site…
http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Tennis.htm
It reckons that the l’oeuf etymology is doubtful and suggests that the word may derive from the Dutch/Flemish “lof”, which means honour.
If you want a real belly laugh, take a look at this page that shows what came before lawn tennis:
A big thanks for everyones efforts in making the concept more clearer.
Special thanks to everton and Julie for the great links.