Why is the word “love” used in some sports to indicate no score? It all originated, say sports historians, with tennis. Long ago, no score was indicated on French tennis scorecards by an egg-shaped zero. This was known as L’oeuf, the French word for egg, and the English-speaking players used the same word, but in this case it sounded like “love”, and has been called love ever since. It was later adopted in other sports as well, such as badminton and volleyball.