Who can forget hearing that first tennis coach at one of our first lessons or clinics: “OK, the first and most important thing you need to know is that love means ‘nothing’ in tennis.”

After the chuckles had subsided and the boys nervously fidgeted and the girls blushed, we were off, running and playing and enjoying a game that, although we didn’t know it at the time, we would enjoy playing for the rest of our lives.

But have you ever stopped and wondered why “love” means nothing in tennis?

There are several differing theories, but the most common one known is that is the term is derived from the French word l’oeuf (“the egg”) to describe the shape of the number zero.

The word Tennis itself originated from the French word tenez, which means to receive.

Doing a simple Google search “Why does love mean nothing in tennis” will provide you some entertaining reading. Said one Internet anonymous poster: “The origin of love in tennis scoring is obvious: One-on-one games are not much fun if the two players are mismatched, which is invariably the case when families have ‘tennis parties.’ ”

And from another: “The English, not a people to ostensibly make others feel bad, introduced ‘love’ as a shorthand form of ‘you may be a crap tennis player, but we still love you.’ ”

And the best explanation of all is that the term “love” also implies that someone who plays and scores zero points must truly love the game.

-Steve Pratt