a tu per tu

Italian

Etymology

Literally, “at you for you”.

Prepositional phrase

a tu per tu

1. face to face, directly

   Synonyms: faccia a faccia, a quattr'occhi

2. privately

   Synonyms: in privato, in confidenza

   • 2007, David Foster Wallace, “La persona depressa [The Depressed Person]”, in Ottavio Fatica, Giovanna Granato, transl., Brevi interviste con uomini schifosi [Brief Interviews with Hideous Men], Einaudi:

     Tutti e due i genitori erano benestanti e ciascuno, a tu per tu con la persona depressa, aveva detto che, naturalmente, al momento di sborsare per tutte le cure odontoiatriche di cui la persona depressa necessitava non si sarebbe tirato indietro aggiungendo che era, fondamentalmente, una questione non di soldi o di dentatura ma di «principio».

     Both parents were well-off, and each had privately expressed to the depressed person a willingness, if push came to shove, to bite the bullet and pay, explaining that it was a matter not of money or dentition but of "principle."

     (literally, “Both parents were well-to-do and each one, privately with the depressed person, had said that, obviously, at the moment to pay out for all the orthodontic care that the depressed person needed they would not have backed down, adding that it was, fundamentally, a question not of money or of orthodonture but of "principle."”)