deuce

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a playing card or die showing two; (in tennis) a tied score

   The match reached deuce again as neither player could break serve.

Simplified etymology

The different senses of deuce ultimately come from Latin duus “two” by different routes. The earliest, recorded in the late 15th century, meant “a throw of two at dice” and came immediately from the French word for “two,” modern deux. In the mid-17th century it was reinforced by German duus “bad luck or mischief” and, by association, “the devil”; the connection arose because two was the worst or unluckiest throw with two dice. In late-16th-century real tennis, deuce denoted a stage of five or more games all at which a player had to win two successive points.

From Old French deus ('two'), from Latin duos, accusative of duo ('two'). The 'devil/bad luck' sense arose from the unlucky throw of two in dice, later a euphemism for the devil.

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