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You are here: Home / Language / How Did Tennis Get its Name, Where Did the Game Come From, and What Does Tennis Mean in French?

How Did Tennis Get its Name, Where Did the Game Come From, and What Does Tennis Mean in French?

June 6, 2020 by Karen Hill

In the eleventh century, French monks started playing a game by batting a crude handball around the monastery.

It was a kind of handball with a rope strung across a courtyard.

The game progressed and became popular with royalty before catching on in England in the thirteenth century.

When returning a ball over the net, the French players shouted, “Tenez,” which, roughly translated, means, “Take that!”

The English did the same, only “tenez” became “tennis.”

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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