Vice Versa and Vis-à-Vis

Vice Versa and VisVis Vice Versa and VisVis Vice Versa and VisVis By Maeve Maddox The following quotation appeared in a newspaper article about a school where parents are encouraged to visit their children’s classroom: the more parent visitors we have, the more they trust us and visvis.   I think the principal intended to say, â€Å"the more parent visitors we have, the more they trust us and vice versa.† The only thing the two expressions have in common is that they alliterate. English vis-a-vis [vee-zuh-vee] is from French visvis, â€Å"face to face.† It can be used as noun, preposition, or adverb. As a noun, visvis can refer to: 1. a person or a thing situated opposite another. Example: At the table, my vis-a-vis was a woman dressed all in black and wearing a veil. 2. one’s opposite number or counterpart. Example: At the international conference of editors, my Russian vis-a-vis was a short, chubby man with a cheerful countenance and a ready laugh. 3. a meeting. Example: Reggie’s first vis-a-vis with the new commander left him shaking. As a preposition, visvis can be used to mean literally â€Å"face to face with,† or in the sense of â€Å"in relation to†: At the town meeting, a farmer sat visvis the Mayor. The citizens had called the meeting visvis a proposed redistricting. As an adverb, visvis means â€Å"opposite, so as to face each other.† Example: On the mantelpiece the actor’s two Oscars stood visvis. The other expression, vice versa [vahys-vur-suh] or [vahy-suh vur-suh], came into English directly from Latin from a word meaning â€Å"turn.† It’s used as an adverb meaning â€Å"with a reversal or transposition of the main items in the statement just made.† It can be used with or without a restatement of the previous item: the constellations do shift, so that what you see during the summer is overhead during the day in the winter and vice versa, the constellations you saw in winter, are overhead in the summer. or, the constellations do shift, so that what you see during the summer is overhead during the day in the winter and vice versa. Some bloggers ridicule speakers who pronounce vice versa with four syllables, but they are mean-spirited and uninformed. The OED puts the three-syllable pronunciation first, but acknowledges the four-syllable pronunciation as an alternate. Merriam-Webster puts the four-syllable pronunciation first. As a blogger named ClarE has pointed out, if we want to get picky, maybe we should reject both English efforts and try to pronounce it like classical Latin: [wee-kay wer-sah]. The important thing is not to say vice versa when what you mean is visvis–and vice versa. 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 Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Words with More Than One SpellingYay, Hooray, Woo-hoo and Other Acclamations20 Clipped Forms and Their Place (If Any) in Formal Writing