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Vis-à-vis
Meaning
In a position facing another. Literally 'face to face'. Often now used in the sense of 'in relation to'.
Origin
The term is French and began to be used in English in the mid 18th century. The French term is vis-à-vis, i.e. with the grave accent, although that is often omitted when written in English. It is now frequently printed, no doubt to shudders and shrugs in France, as 'vis-a-vis'. (At the time of writing - September 2006 - there were 7 million hits on Google for vis-a-vis).
Unusually for a new introduction into the language it had three separate meanings. All of these were in use in the 1750s. Firstly, and this is the first citation we have of the term, it meant a small carriage, in which two people sat face-to-face:
Horace Walpole's Letter to G. Montague, July 1753: "He was walking slowly ... with ... two pages, three footmen and a vis-à-vis following him."
Secondly, it meant 'in relation to', or 'in regard of', which how the term is generally used now.
Horace Walpole again, in Letter to R. Bentley, November 1755: "What a figure would they ... make vis-à-vis his manly vivacity and dashing eloquence."
Thirdly, things or people that are situated opposite to each other.
A 1757 letter, reprinted in George Selwyn & Contemporaries, 1843: "We are reduced to Miss Wylde, who has a most charming vis-à-vis, Mr. Ward, who sings like a nightingale."
See also - other French phrases in English.