15 love Tennis scoring

There is no moment in sports more romantic than the beginning of a tennis game, when the score is “love-love” and anything is possible.

During the recent Wimbledon tennis tournament, a timeless question came to mind: What is love? Or in this case, what is tennis love?

From there, tennis scoring goes from odd to batty. One point brings a player to “15, ” two to “30”; and three to “40.” The next point wins the game, unless a complex series of tie-breakers comes into play.

There’s no consensus, however, about the origin of the tennis term “love.”

The Oxford English Dictionary surmises the term is rooted in the colloquial phrase “for love, ” meaning “without stakes being wagered.” This theory walks in lockstep with the sport’s long history of etiquette and sportsmanship. (Let’s not kid ourselves: Major prize money was at stake during Wimbledon. The women’s singles winner Serena Williams, as well men’s winner Rafael Nadal, who goes by the sobriquet “Rafa, ” each took home more than $1.5 million.)

Some etymologists theorize that “love” arose from the French word “l’oeuf, ” meaning egg — a “zero” on the scoreboard. This is a clever claim, but appears to remain unsubstantiated.

The word “tennis” comes from the French word “tenetz” — meaning “hold!” — the imperative conjugation of the verb “tenir.” (Spanish speakers will recognize this as a cognate with their infinitive verb “tener.”)

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While “Hannibal” has been killing ‘em at the box office – it surpassed $100 million in just 10 days – two DVDs for the movie that spawned the sequel, “The Silence of the Lambs, ” are nowhere to be found. They don’t go out of print officially until March 1, when the rights to “The Silence of the Lambs” revert to “Hannibal” studio MGM, but demand spurred by the current film has made the DVDs largely unavailable.

There are two versions of the “Silence” DVD – a bare-bones widescreen release from Image ($29.99) and a special edition from the Criterion Collection ($39.95). The highly recommended Criterion disc has clearly become the version of choice.