Its a french phrase which means face-to- face

The term is French and began to be used in English in the mid 18th century. The French spelling is vis--vis, i.e. with the grave accent, although that is often omitted when written in English. It is now frequently printed, no doubt to French shrugs and mutterings, as 'vis-a-vis' or even 'viz-a-viz'.

When 'vis--vis' was introduced into England it was provided with two distinct meanings, both of which were in use from the 1750s onward. Oddly, it seems that these were both introduced by the author and politician Horace Walpole.

The first meaning was the literal translation from the French, i.e. 'face-to-face'. Walpole was an incurable letter writer and, fortunately for us, many of his letters have been published in a collection of books, which provides the first citation we have of the term in English, in Letter to George Montague, July 1753:

"He was walking slowly in the beau milieu of Brentford town, without any company, but with a brown lap-dog with long ears, two pointers ...more

Directly .....Face to face .