(1) A distant view. (2) An extensive mental view, as over a stretch of time.

*Vista* is generally used today for broad sweeping views of the kind you might see from a mountaintop. But the word originally meant an avenue-like view, narrowed by a line of trees on either side. And *vista* has also long been used (like *view* and *outlook*) to mean a mental scan of the future—as if you were riding down a long grand avenue and what you could see a mile or so ahead of you was where you'd be in the very near future.

In relation to or compared with.

*Vis-à-vis* comes from Latin by way of French, where it means literally “face- to-face.” In English it was first used to mean a little horse-drawn carriage in which two people sat opposite each other. From there it acquired various other meanings, such as “dancing partner.” Today it no longer refers to actual physical faces and bodies, but its modern meaning comes from the fact that things that are face-to-face can easily be compared or contrasted. So, for example, a greyhound is very tall vis-à-vis a Scottie, and the Red Sox have often fared badly vis-à-vis the Yankees.

(1) A person with foresight and imagination. (2) A dreamer whose ideas are often impractical.

A visionary is someone with a strong *vision* of the future. Since such visions aren't always accurate, a visionary's ideas may either work brilliantly or fail miserably. Even so, *visionary* is usually a positive word. Martin Luther King, Jr., for instance, was a visionary in his hopes and ideas for a just society. The word is also an adjective; thus, for example, we may speak of a *visionary* project, a visionary leader, a visionary painter, or a visionary company.

To have a mental picture of; visualize.

One of the imagination's most valuable uses is its ability to see something in the “mind's eye”—that is, to *visualize, envision,* or envisage something. Envisaging a possibility may be one of the chief abilities that separate human beings from the other animals. What we envisage may be physical (such as a completed piece of furniture) or nonphysical (such as finishing college). Envisaging life with a puppy might lead us down to the pound to buy one, and envisaging the sinking of an island nation may focus our minds on climate change.

(1) A part of something. (2) A certain way in which something appears or may be regarded.

Since *aspectus* in Latin means “looked at,” an aspect of something is basically the direction from which it's looked at. So we may say that travel is your favorite aspect of your job, or that eating well is one aspect of a healthy life. If you look at a stage set from the front, it looks completely different than from behind, where all the mechanisms are visible, and both aspects are important. The word can be very useful when you're analyzing something, and it's used a great deal in the writings of scholars.

(1) The possibility that something will happen in the future. (2) An opportunity for something to happen.

Since the Latin prefix *pro-* often means “forward”, *prospect* refers to looking forward. The prospect of a recession may lead investors to pull their money out of the stock market. Graduates of a good law school usually have excellent prospects for finding employment. *Prospective* students roam campuses with their parents in the year before they plan to enter college.

(1) Point of view; the angle, direction, or standpoint from which a person looks at something. (2) The art or technique of painting or drawing a scene so that objects in it seem to have depth and distance.

To the modern mind, it's hard to believe that perspective had to be “discovered,” but before the 1400s paintings simply lacked accurate perspective. Instead, important people and objects were simply shown larger than less important ones; and although distant objects were sometimes shown smaller than near ones, this wasn't done in a regular and accurate way. Just as odd, many paintings didn't represent the other meaning of *perspective* either —that is, a scene might not be shown as if it were being seen from one single place. Today, *perspective* is used much like *standpoint*. Just as *standpoint* once used to mean simply the physical place where you stand but today also means the way you “see” things as a result of who you are and what you do, the same could be said about *perspective*.

Like *prospect*, *prospectus* looks forward. Thus, a prospectus originally outlined something that didn't yet exist, describing what it would become. This might even be a book; the great dictionary of Noah Webster, like that of Samuel Johnson, was first announced in the form of a prospectus, so that well-to-do people might actually subscribe to it—that is, pay for it in advance so that Webster would have money to live on while writing it. Soon, *prospectus* was being used to mean a description of a private school or college, intended to attract new students. Today the word very often means a description of a stock offering or mutual fund, whether new or not.