This page owes its existence to a few words I stumbled across on the web, about the origins of the game and some of the basic terms used when playing it. See the inspirational paragraph below:
Modern tennis almost certainly originated in France in the 11th century as a form of handball called le jeu de paume. The game, also called “court tennis” or “real tennis,” was played on an indoor court – originally in a monastery – with a ball, and by 1500 a racquet was introduced. The word “tennis” likely derived from the French tenez – “hold” or “take heed,” perhaps called before service. The unusual scoring came from the medieval use of 60 as a base number (as we use 100 today), and the term “love” for zero perhaps came from the French l’oeuf (“egg,” implying “zero”) or from English usage, in which love is the equal of nothing (“love or money”). “Deuce” is a corruption of the French à deux, indicating that one player had to win two consecutive points for the game, and “40″ is an abbreviation of the original “45.” The use of the word “service” is almost certainly derived from the fact that the ball was set in motion by a servant – initially, with no intention of winning the point, just a way of starting a rally.………………………………from The Canadian Encyclopedia
[Find an interesting outline of lawn tennis history here.]
The above explanation of origin of words used in tennis scoring I found to be particularly interesting. Having “love, fifteen, thirty, forty” as scores doesn’t really make any sense until one knows the background. Aside from terms of archaic origin employed to denote game progress, there are many newer terms used by players, coaches, and professional tennis commentators that will leave an uninitiated ear none the wiser, without some explanation.
“Big” for instance. Players are described as have a big serve, a big forehand, a big backhand down the line……..no end of “big” tennis strokes. What is that supposed to mean??????
Tennis Canada has an extensive glossary of tennis terms to be found here. In my compilation special effort will be made to add words or information overlooked by other sources. This is a work in progress.
QEhardrock’s lexicon of tennis terms
Ace: a serve that the returner was unable to touch. Players with big serves often hit aces.
Advantage: first of the two points required to win a game when the score is tied at deuce (forty all). Tennis is a curious compilation of competitive stages. Points, games, and sets are all contested to make the final outcome – a match. In counting points to make a game, and games to make a set, victory was originally deemed to be merited only when one opponent was able to best the other by two points (to win the game), or two games (to win the set). Within games, when the score is tied at forty all (deuce) one player or the other must count two points in succession to win. The first of these is the advantage point. Whomsoever has the advantage, can win the game by winning the next point.
Ad-in, ad-out: “advantage”, in relation to the server. When there is no umpire, the serving player in tennis must call out the score. Protocol requires that the server announce his own score first, and in the case of advantage points, where there is no number designated for the point, the server will call the score as either “your ad” or “my ad”, or very commonly as “ad-in”, meaning the server has advantage, and can win the game if he/she wins the next point, or “ad-out”, meaning the receiver holds advantage, and the server can lose the game if he/she loses the next point. The game score will shift from ad-in or ad-out to deuce and back until the server wins or loses two points in succession.
Alley: the area demarcated by the outside doubles sideline, and the singles sideline. The two alleys comprise the additional court area used for doubles play. An alley can be referred to as the “tramlines”, by British, Australian, South African, Indian, and other former British colony tennis folk. Presumably because the parallel lines at the side of the court bear a resemblance to overhead streetcar (tram) or bus power lines.
Back: “Back” is sometimes called out by defending players, rather than “out”, “long”, or “fault”, to indicate that the serve fell “back of” the service line, or a rally ball has landed “back of” the baseline.
Big: fast-paced, or forceful. This adjective was first applied to serves only, so far as this QEhardrock can recall. I don’t know why serves became “big” rather than “hard” or “fast”. But I am guessing it happened when radar guns began to be used to measure speed of tennis serves. Fast serves brought forth a big number from the radar gun (any better information will be welcome). Now shots of all kinds have become “big” if they are fast-paced, or fast with heavy spin, causing difficulty for a receiver.
Rhythm: no clear meaning, but likely having something to do with consistent good play or shot-making. TV commentators talk about one player trying to disrupt another’s rhythm. Players lament not finding their rhythm on serve, or simply not finding their rhythm, period. Sport writers compose sentences like: “Maria Sharapova struggled to find her rhythm Sunday, but advanced to the second round due to…” (afp.com) This is a professional tennis player word. Generally not spoken on a public park court.
Rubber: refers to an individual match in the series of matches that make up a tie (see below), in the international team tennis competitions of Davis Cup and Federation Cup. A dead rubber is a match played to fulfill the obligation to ticket-holders in instances where the outcome of the tie has been decided before all scheduled rubbers have been played.
Slice: side spin on a serve, or under spin on any other stroke. In golf, a slice is a combination of side spin and under spin that curves the ball in the direction of the dominant hand of the player. The meaning is not so cut and dried in tennis, where the spin referred to is sidespin (no underspin) in relation to the serve, and predominantly underspin (often with some sidespin), in relation to other strokes. Hence, a slice serve will give a curved ball trajectory, like a sliced stroke in golf, but a slice backhand or forehand may, or may not, curve.
Tie: Aside from its meaning to describe a point score that is the same for two competing players or teams, the word is used to describe a series of matches, usually including both singles and doubles play, between two tennis teams in the International competitions for Federation Cup (ladies) and Davis Cup (men). Tennis glossaries often misleadingly describe “tie”, in this context, as a synonym for “match” in Davis Cup. In fact it signifies a series of matches played by members of two competing teams.
Touch: the ability to redirect the ball with delicacy, rather than power. Touch is special racquet skill used to take pace off the ball and direct it, often with spin applied, barely over the net or over an opponent’s head. It is a word used commonly by professional tennis commentators, and usually not applicable to less than a very skilled level of play.
More words to be added.
[Please leave suggestions by way of a comment]
