Love (in tennis)

The story that love in tennis comes from the English miss-pronunciation of the French l’oeuf for egg, which resembles a zero, is now disputed by most etymologists including those at the OED. The most likely theory is that the love score in tennis stems from playing this game for love and not money. This of course goes back to the amateur days of tennis, when even the word amateur was true to its French roots as a lover of the game for its own sake as opposed to financial gain. Perhaps it was nothing more than a pun on playing for nothing, especially when one had a score of nothing. Meanwhile, the egg theory is completely out of favour.