Feel like taking a swing at tennis yourself? The first step is understanding the game’s unique language, much of which is explained by tennis’French origins.“Love,”for example, representing a score of zero, may have come from l’oeuf, which is French for“egg.”“Deuce,”similar to the French word for“two,”refers to a situation in which two points in a row are required to win the game. The word“tennis”itself comes from the French tenez, which means,“Here, catch!”

想亲自上场挥拍吗?首先你必须了解这项运动独特的语言，其中许多术语都要以网球的法语渊源来解释。例如，love代表“零分”，可能是源于法文的l’oeuf，也就是“蛋”。deuce则和法文“二”原意相近，指的是选手必须连赢两球才能拿下该局的情况。而tennis这个词本身则是从法语tenez而来，意思是“瞧，接住”!

Getting started with tennis is easy, as long as you have a total of two or four players and a court to play on. Many cities have public tennis courts, so you don’t have to be an aristocrat to afford the game. You will, however, have to shell out for rackets and balls. Of the aristocratic points of etiquette that live on in tennis, an important one is that each player should bring a new can of balls to a game.

网球活动其实很容易开展，只要你凑够两个或四个人，然后找到一座球场就行了。许多城市都有公共网球场，所以你不必拥有贵族身份就打得起，不过，你得自掏腰包买球拍和球。网球运动至今尚存的贵族礼节中，很重要的一点就是每个球员都应该带一筒新的球来参加比赛。