love竟然还有这个意思

原文:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA4MDYyMTcxOA==&mid=2651254720&idx=1&sn=8cd3962a17cb1aaa1b75e40d715842c6&chksm=84533639b324bf2f5e9d65df630a516e7820d0a845c724255f41138dbc757a94395d2f7f4e73#rd

“He beat Thomas Muster of Austria three sets to love.” 这句话什么意思?


这是柯林斯双解上的一个例句:




在网球比赛中,“零分”用love来表示。Quroa上有人这样回答:


The actual origin of the word "love" in racket sports is disputed. It was likely from French origin, and the most widely accepted theory is that it derives from the French word for an egg ( l'ouef ), because an egg looks like the number zero. This is similar to the origin of the term 'duck in cricket, as in a duck's egg, which implies that the batsman got out without scoring.


可能的一个来源是,love的这种用法来自法语l'ouef。ouef在法语中是鸡蛋的意思,是个阳性名词,前面用冠词le,le ouef = the egg,两个词一连读就变成了l'oeuf,听起来像是love。



Wikipedia上法语“蛋”的页面


搜一下tennis terms就可以看到很多有关网球的术语,这一点Wikipedia做的很好: