Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-01-25
love- WILL STAY
|NTENN|SSCOR|NG
Move for Strictly Mathemati-
cal Method 0pposed-How
Terms Originated.
BY w. HI. HOTEL.

There is going to be something
doing at the annual meeting of the
ton in New York on February 6. Re-
vision of the foot-fault rule, adoption
of new plan of organization and
voting power. approval of a new sys-
tenn Of competition in the national
doubles and change in the method
various committees All seem des-
tined to be adopted except the last
mentioned, which would throw into
discard love- deuce" and other long
used terms and put forward the
purely mathematical phraseology of
10. etc.
All of these recommendations were
detailed when reports were made a
month or so back and only the one
calling for the change in terms Of
scoring has drawn seriously unfavor-
able comment. This item is the one
at the big confab. and while the pro-
posed changes seem assured to be de-
feated. there is going to be some in
teresting debate on the subject.
"Love'' Hard to Explain.
Those who seek the change in scor-
ing simply are reviving an old cam
paign against the use of the word
love" which means nothing" in
tennis. They argue that it is an
absurd bit of phraseology and that it
has been the reason for the charge
of efficiency that has been made against
the game.
But if the fight results in nothing
as to how the various traditional
terms in tennis scoring originated.
Not strange to relate, the toughest
Of the lot to explain is the much de-
rided "love." 1t always has been used
for the innocent cipher and no one
trace it's origin. One possible solu-
ton. and perhaps the most plausible
offered, is that it came from the old
Scotch word 'luff." meaning nothing.
Another word of similar sound is said
to be of far eastern origin and, as an
flourished in the orient. this word
also may have been the parent
AS for deuce it is merely the
equivalent of the French word "deux,"
meaning two points have to be won in
succession to make the game. From
time immemorial in tennis it has been
decreed that tie that resulted after
one player was within one point of a
game meant the necessity of winning
two points in succession.
"Set' is easily explained as group
or collection of games. But the orig
fnal term probably was Sept" as
there originally were seven games in
a set. Vantage" is, of course, short
for advantage. with its old Italian and
Erench parallels, ".vantagio" and
advantage" "Volley" comes from "a
RACQUET" has been traced to sew
eral sources. the best etymology de-
irving it from the Dutch and low
German. "racken." which means .to
stretch" referring, of course. to the
stretching of strings. But there are
two old words. "rachette" and "ras-
quetta," meaning the palm of the
hand, and these easily may have been
the ancestors of racquet" For ten
mis- originally was played like hand
ball, the earliest strings being stretch
ed between the fingers, before pro-
crossing to frame and handle of
their own.
Tennis Offers Puzzle.
'"rennis" itself has many possible
origins. The Greeks had a game
known as "phennis," Of which the
Latin equivalent was teniludium." or
ed nv knocking the ball back and
forth The province of France, where
paume. or hand ball. was extremely
popular. may have given the modern
tennis its name. Then there are those
who argue a derivation from "tenez,"
in the sense or get ready but this
appears far-fetched. !
Whatever the details of it's his
tory. tennis surely is one of the most
ancient of all games, and it now
seems destined to hold the affections
Of the world for all time. Chaucer and
France recorded the deeds OF its
faTnns players even earlier. Queen
Eliraheth is said to have endowed
watching her courtiers at play