Let's go for number 7 of COURTS magazine. A magazine dedicated to tennis but not only, since in a few months it will offer a subject padel very interesting…

Here is an exciting excerpt on the origins of certain words or certain rules by the journalist Valerio Emanuele.

As for the origin of the word "service" (from the Latin servitium, to serve, to be a slave), it would be explained by the fact that, in the game of the palm, the egg, often of large dimension and not very manageable , was put into play by a servant to facilitate the start of the exchange. Curiously, the invention of the second service ball is linked to an awkwardness… royal! The origin of this rule dates back to the XNUMXth century, when King Henry VIII of England liked to enjoy playing tennis. The king being corpulent and uncomfortable during the game, he had then decreed that, to start his game, two tries would suit him better. This royal exception then became a rule, the application of which has been maintained in modern tennis to the present day.

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The former Frenchman, for his part, provided, among other things, feat, package, level and short. This last word - name of our beautiful review - originally designates a field specially designed for the practice of the game of palm. While being borrowed from the English language in 1887, short derives in a direct line from the old French cort (appeared in 1155), a word which designates the court, the royal residence. This is not surprising, given that the game of palm was the favorite activity of the nobility and that many French rulers, such as Francis I, Charles IX and Henry IV, practiced it assiduously. The historical link with the royal court explains why the word short is used only in racket sports derived from the tennis court: we say "a tennis court", "a squash court", "a tennis court". padel », But we don't say« a football court »or« a basketball court »! It will then be necessary to use the word ground, which in the lexicon of tennis is interchangeable with court, these two terms having a synonymic relation. The history of the word court is not isolated in the panorama of the tennis lexicon. Many words, in fact, have made surprising back and forth between France and Great Britain. The examination of anglicisms, abundant in tennis terminology, will allow us to discover in detail their paths.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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