Vis-à-vis Has More Than One Use

Visvis Has More Than One Use Visvis Has More Than One Use Visvis Has More Than One Use By Maeve Maddox A French borrowing, visvis [VEEZ-uh-VEE] means literally, â€Å"face to face.† Visvis as a noun One meaning of visvis is â€Å"a political or diplomatic counterpart.† For example, a commenter in a Thai political forum refers to the US president as â€Å"Putin’s vis-a-vis in the White House.† Other meanings for visvis as a noun include â€Å"dancing partner,† â€Å"person seated opposite,† â€Å"conversational partner,† etc. Here are examples: No, replied  his vis-a-vis, with a falling inflection The man looked suspicious, and exchanged glances with  his vis-a-vis: both were middle-aged, and of the very middle class. She did not wish to  dance; she was faint- she had no  vis-a-vis. As a noun, visvis can also mean meeting, interview, or rendezvous: Thus, a  suitor  having a discreet  vis-a-vis with  his beloved would cautiously ascertain her fathers whereabouts Visvis as an adverb The literal meaning is implicit in the use of visvis as an adverb, like this example from a movie site: All the star teams dancing efforts are honeys. Miss Rogers in this one goes beyond the role of dancing vis-a-vis for Astaire and emerges as a corking stepper in her own right. Note: This quotation uses for, but to and with are more common when the adverb takes a preposition: â€Å"dancing vis-a-vis to Astaire,† â€Å"seated vis-a-vis with her uncle.† Here are two more examples of adverbial use: Dancing vis-a-vis  they again sidestepped and each position was repeated five or six times. The design represents two females,  seated, vis-a-vis, upon chairs without  backs. Visvis as an adjective In cruising the Web for examples to use in this post, I came upon a Mercedes advertisement for the Ares Atelier, S Class XXL. The description boasts â€Å"Vis-a-vis first class seats.† These are seats arranged so that passengers face one another. Visvis in corporate-speak Visvis is frequently met in writing about government and business, in which the term is used to mean regarding, concerning, relating to, compared with, with respect to, or re. Here are examples of this usage: History of US policy vis-a-vis Cuba inconsistent at best That’s one of the reasons the President made the decision he made vis-a-vis US companies in the telecommunications area. Moscow has visibly hardened its stance vis-a-vis the West even as President Vladimir Putin arrived in Milan late Thursday for the ASEM summit With the rise of Spender and Whitlam as dominant influences in the early 1950s, Australia’s policy became marked by an emphasis on the distinct nature of moral human rights  vis-a-vis  legal human rights. Note: The OED, Merriam-Webster, and The Chicago Manual of Style all show visvis with the accent, but most of the examples I found were written without an accent. The expression is not italicized. The use of visvis to mean â€Å"with respect to† seems to me to be an unnecessary obfuscation and waste of the â€Å"face-to-face† sense. Writers who desire to decorate their writing with a French expression that means â€Å"with regard to† or â€Å"in respect of,† can always fall back on apropos. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Writing a Reference Letter (With Examples)In Search of a 4-Dot Ellipsis20 Clipped Forms and Their Place (If Any) in Formal Writing