IcL délaisse^ neglects, forsakes, her

Page 21.

9. engagez-moi vis-à-vis d'elle, pledge my word to her, i.e, tell her that I pledge my honour to abide by whatever you say. Lit., vis-à-vis, face to face; fig. O ver the way : il demeure vis-à-vis, he lives over the way ; with the préposition de, opposite : vis-àvis de V église, vis-à-vis de moi\ fig., in presence of ; il se trouve vis-à-vis de rien, he has nothing left (lit., he flnds himself in presence of nothing). — Very often vis-à-vis is used instead of envers, with the meaning of ‘ towards,’ ‘ respecting,’ ‘ concerning,’ ‘as regards.* See notes, p. 30, 1. 13; p. 35, 1. 21 ; p. 97, 1. 13. — It is said that J. J. Rousseau was the first to use vis-à-vis with that particular meaning, and that Voltaire protested strongly against such an innovation. ‘La langue,* he says ironically in a letter to Linguet, dated loth March 1769, ‘la langue s’enrichit tous les jours : le roi n’est plus endetté envers le public, mais vis-à vis le public.’ Grammatically speaking, Voltaire was no doubt right, but in spite of his protestation the custom has prevailed of using vis-à-vis as synonymoùs with envers in many cases, so that nowadays none but most fastidious purists would dare to raise a protest against it.