versus

Etymology

From Middle English versus, borrowed from Latin versus (“facing”), past participle of vertere (“to turn, change, overthrow, destroy”).

prep

1. Against; in opposition to.
   It is the Packers versus the Steelers in the Super Bowl.
2. Compared with, as opposed to.
   In polling by the Pew Research Center in November 2008, fully half the respondents thought the two parties would cooperate more in the coming year, versus only 36 percent who thought the climate would grow more adversarial. November 7, 2012, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times
   If, for example, we select random people entering a workout gym, versus if we pick random people entering a hospital, we will get very different samples. 2005, Robert E. Weiss, Modeling Longitudinal Data, Springer, page 104
3. (law) Bringing a legal action against, as used in the title of a court case in which the first party indicates the plaintiff (or appellant or the like), and the second indicates the defendant (or respondent or the like).
   Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.