Vis-a-vis (pronounced vee-zuh-vee or vee-za-vee (French))
(1) A French phrase, literally, “face to face”
constructed with the prepositional use of the adjective.
(2) In numismatics (of a coin) having two
portraits facing each other.
(3) As a preposition (some pedants disapprove of
some of the extensions of meaning), in relation to; compared with; as opposed
to.
(4) A type of horse-drawn carriage commonly made
by Amish coachbuilders, mostly in the mid-western US; also produced for the
tourist trade in various places. In the
horse-drawn era, vis-à-vis carriages were usually described as barouches, berlines
or landaus depending on their configuration.
(5) A sofa in the shape of the letter “S” with
seats for two, so arranged that the occupants can be face to face while sitting
on opposite sides; sometimes called the tête-à-tête
(literally head to head).
(6) One’s date or escort at a social event
(obsolete).
(7) In limousines, a coach-builder’s term for a
rear compartment configured with two rows of seats, facing each other.
1755: From the French prepositional use of the
adjective vis-à-vis (face to face) from
the Old French vis (face). Vis
is from the Old French viz, from the Latin
vītis (vine) from the primitive Indo-European
wéhitis (that which twines or bends,
branch, switch), from wehiy- (to
turn, wind, bend) which influenced also the Latin vieō and the English withe. The à
is from the Old French a, from the Latin
ad, from the primitive Indo-European ád (near; at). The French vis was an obsolete word for “face”, replaced in contemporary French
by visage. The literal meaning has long run in parallel
with the modern meanings (“in comparison with; in relation to; as opposed to”
although pedants disapprove because of the imprecision). In French, the original sense is preserved
also as real estate jargon meaning the windows of one house are within sighting
distance of those of the neighboring house (literally that the occupants can
see into each-other’s homes). In
English, the un-accented spelling vis-a-vis is now more common.
The companion term tête-à-tête (from the French
and literally “head-to-head”) means “a private conversation between two people,
usually in an intimate setting”) and thus, strictly speaking, refers to a
process rather than a seating arrangement and, since advances in communication
technology, one can have a tête-à-tête
over a phone call whereas to be vis-a-vis with them, physical closeness is
demanded. However, the two terms are
often used interchangeably and the use of vis-a-vis is also sometimes the victim
of linguistic promiscuity, suggesting sometimes just about any juxtaposition. Furniture makers also variously describe the “S”
shaped sofas using either term. Occasionally,
those who use vis-a-vis in its classic sense will baffle others as Horace
Greeley Hjalmar Schacht (1877–1970) managed while being cross-examined during
his trial before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg
(1945-1946):
Schacht: Not vis-à-vis the Austrians but vis-a-vis the Allies.
Prosecutor: I am a little naïve about these things, I must say. You say… not vis-a-vis Austria but against the powers?
The rarely convivial Hjalmar Schacht, with the Führer.
Although that exchange was not critical in Schacht securing one of the three acquittals the bench delivered, the judges doubtlessly enjoyed it more than the prosecution. At various times during the Third Reich, Schacht had served as Minister of Economics, Plenipotentiary General for War Economy and President of the Reichsbank (the German central bank) and he’d been indicted on counts one (conspiracy to commit crimes against peace) & two (crimes against peace). His acquittal on both disappointed many but there were many technical difficulties in the case and the prosecution frankly lacked the expertise in matters of public finance and international banking needed to understand the details, let alone pursue them to the standard needed to convince the judges (except for the Russians who were convinced before the hearings began) to convict. To be fair, the matters were complex and the financial wizardry with which Schacht concocted the money to allow the Nazi’s rearmament programme to be paid for was hardly orthodox monetary policy. In particular his invention of the Metallurgische Forschungsgesellschaft (thankfully abbreviated to Mefo) which essentially meant the Reichsbank loaned money to the government (which under any other circumstances would have been unlawful) without raising loans or increasing the money supply seemed mysterious to the lawyers. It was quite a trick and indicative of the intricacies which littered the case.
The ex-comrade Marshal Tito 1968 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet (six-door, long-roof) with jump seats.
The optional vis-a-vis seating configuration in the rear compartment of the Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100;1963-1981) Pullman was something of a novelty, the competitor limousines from the UK or US built usually with an opulent rear bench for two or three with a pair of utilitarian fold-away (jump or occasional) seats for staff or other temporary occupants (even the infamous X-100, the Lincoln Continental in which John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) was assassinated used jump seats). There had been the odd exception. While the limousines or horse-drawn carriages of kings and emperors had side-by-side seats for two to accommodate a consort, the Roman Catholic popes were granted a single, raised, throne-like chair for, unlike less spiritual heads of state, the bachelor Bishop of Rome never (officially) had a consort to accommodate (there were a few concubines but (as far as is known) they predated the automobile.
1957 Imperial Limousine by Ghia (left), 1964 Crown Imperial Limousine by Ghia (centre) and 1967 Imperial Limousine by Theodorou with the unusual folding vis-a-vis seats (right).
The 600’s much-admired vis-a-vis option arrangement did seem to affect
the US coachbuilders, the configuration seating seen more frequently in the
years that followed its debut. Prior to
that, the elongated editions of Cadillacs, Packards, Lincolns and Imperials usually
had rear compartments (often trimmed in leather unlike the cars from the UK which
traditionally used leather only in front (for the chauffeur) with “West of England
cloth” for the passengers) equipped with jump seats. Even the Imperial Limousine built for Chrysler with
(untypically) exquisite care and precision in Italy by Ghia (1957-1965) used
them but when production was outsourced to US operators, coach-builders such as
Chicago-based Andrew Theodorou included what they called “conversation seats”
which, cleverly, were arranged vis-a-vis but folded in such a way that most of
the additional space afforded by the conventional jump seats was retained. During the stretch limousine era in the US, vis-a-vis
seating was often used.
Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet (four-door, short-roof) with vis-a-vis seats. Almost all the 600s delivered to North America, Australia and the UK were trimmed in leather but in Europe and some export markets, mohair wasn't unusual and the factory even made available its famously durable MB-Tex (a high quality vinyl rumored to verge on the indestructible) but none were ever so equipped.
Mercedes-Benz offered the vis-a-vis
configuration, in a choice of leather or mohair, in both the 600 Pullman’s closed
form and the rare landaulets with their fold-back roof. The landaulets however were often parade
vehicles, used to percolate along crowd-lined boulevards with a
prince, president, pope or potentate standing and waving and for this purpose, the
vis-a-vis seats intruded too much and the fold-away jump seats, which afforded
more standing room, were preferred.
That’s why illustrious 600 Landaulet owners such as comrade Marshall
Tito, North Korea’s Great Leader, Dear Leader & Supreme Leader, the Shah of
Iran, Robert Mugabe, Saddam Hussein, Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin, Nicolae
Ceaușescu, P W Botha and a dozen-odd others of varying degrees of virtue, all
eschewed the vis-a-vis arrangement because it made it too hard to stand and
wave. Only ever produced in small
numbers (although such was the factory’s misplaced optimism they hoped they might
make a thousand a year) the 600 was introduced at the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA, the Frankfurt Motor Show, September 1963) and in a
run of eighteen-odd years (1964-1981), only 2,677 were made, 2,190 of the
standard-length sedan (referred to often as the short-wheelbase (SWB), a
relative term given it was over eighteen feet (5.5 m) long), 487 of the twenty
and a half foot long Pullmans of which 59 were landaulets. Of the rare landaulets, most had a
convertible top which exposed only rear-most of the back seats, twelve being built with
a longer fabric roof which rendered open the entire rear compartment, this
dozen often called the “presidential landaulets” although this was never an
official name. Although the
specification sometimes varied, the Pullmans with the jump-seats usually were configured
with six doors while the vis-a-vis models used four.
Seated vis-a-vis, Lindsay Lohan and her sister Aliana, enjoying a tête-à-tête, La Conversation bakery & café, West Hollywood, California, April 2012. Sadly, La Conversation is now closed.
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