How would you interpret ‘vis-à-vis’ in the context?
Dear Mrs. Brown,
This message may startle you, please forgive a bolt from the blue. A telephone call to Mrs. Bittle yesterday confirmed that the former guild of lodgers remains intact, minus myself. (She may thus think it improved vis-à-vis her advertisement of “Only Good People Here.”) And that you could therefore be reached by this address.

How would you interpret ‘vis-à-vis’ in the context?
Thanks! And it’s from The Lacuna by Kingsolver.

Question

How would you interpret ‘vis-à-vis’ in the context?
Dear Mrs. Brown,
This message may startle you, please forgive a bolt from the blue. A telephone call to Mrs. Bittle yesterday confirmed that the former guild of lodgers remains intact, minus myself. (She may thus think it improved vis-à-vis her advertisement of “Only Good People Here.”) And that you could therefore be reached by this address.

How would you interpret ‘vis-à-vis’ in the context?
Thanks! And it’s from The Lacuna by Kingsolver.

Answer

‘Vis-à-vis’ means 'in relation to'.

The writer means that because he or she has left the former guild of lodgers, Mrs. Bittle's advertisement of "Only Good People Here" is now more accurate.

Answers · 1

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