Names for the number 0 in English no authoritative evidence that there has ever been any such word in Scots in the first place. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of the word "love" in English to mean "zero" was to define how a game was to be played, rather than the score in the game itself. Gambling games could be played for stakes (money) or "for love (of the game)", i.e. for zero stakes. The first such recorded usage quoted in the OED was in 1678. The shift in meaning from "zero stakes" to "zero score" is not an enormous conceptual leap, and
Score (game) to use the term "high score" was Midway's "Sea Wolf" (1976). In these early video games, the player would attempt to reach a pre-determined high score within an allotted time period, after which they would win bonus playing time, since it was not possible to save the top score. Though the term "high score" was not used, the concept of reaching pre-determined scores to win bonus playing time was featured in earlier arcade video games such as Taito's racing game "Speed Race" (1974). The high score concept changed in 1978 with the release of Taito's shoot 'em up "Space Invaders",