Who makes the rules?Don't they know English?

Question

Since English is the accepted language for tennis rules and scoring,who decided that a ball would be called IN even if it is without (not IN) the area marked off by the boundary lines?
The lines determine the area within which a ball should land to be considered valid. Any ball that has even a fraction of its surface on the area outside the lines should be called OUT.
However,somebody has decided to do the exact opposite! Even if no portion of the ball touches the "in" area it will still be called "IN" as long as it touches a boundary line.
I object because this is a flagrant abuse. The meanings of words should be respected. "in" is a preposition with a distinct meaning and tennis rules don't respect the meaning of "in"!

Answer 1

Cricket is similar. When a batsman comes out of the pavilion, he is said to be 'in'. Eventually he goes back into the pavilion, and is said to be 'out'.

Answer 2

Tennis dates back at least to the Tudor period, and probably developed in France. Why is a score of zero called 'love'? It's most likely a corruption of the French 'l'oeuf', meaning 'egg', because a zero resembles an egg. English slang still refers to zero or nothing as a 'goose egg'. Even The English language was very different then, and since the rules date back at least 500 years, you'd better your complaint up with the creators of the game and the translators of the rules.

On further consideration, 'in' may refer to the fact that the ball is in the field (literally) surrounding the playing area. The formal courts with which we're familiar today didn't exist centuries ago.

Answer 3

Welcome to the club. It's a wonder than anyone from a non-English speaking country learns our crazy language. Come to think of it, most of us born in America or the UK have a lot of trouble with English as well.