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
The Word for World Is Forest not only links the Athsheans to their environment, but gives primacy to the forest over the rest of the natural ecosystem. The Athsheans' clans are named after trees, and their highly decentralized social structure is constructed in a way that resembles their ecosystem. To the Athsheans, being a mentally healthy person is equivalent to being in touch with their roots, which are closely linked to their ecosystem. In contrast, the Terrans' behavior, such as rape and murder, is attributed to their leaving "their roots behind them". In the Athshean language the word for "forest" is also the word for "world",