anticipate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin anticipātus, the past participle of anticipō (“to occupy beforehand; to do before the proper time”),^[2][3][4][5] partly after French anticiper.^[6][7] Etymonline suggests that it may instead be a back-formation from anticipation, which is recorded earlier, from the early 15th century.^[8][2] The Latin verb is formed from ante- (“before”), in its old form anti, and a form of capiō (“to take”),^[2][8][9][4] perhaps on the model of participō (“to share”).^[2] Etymonline traces the prefix to Proto-Indo-European *ant- (“front, forehead”) and the verb to *kap- (“to grasp”).^[8] The OED notes that the English senses developed under the influence of the French verb, recorded from the end of the 13th century, which already meant to act before the proper time, to bring forward a date, to pay money before it is due and to consider events in advance; the verb has cognates in Italian anticipare and Spanish anticipar.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To consider or envisage an issue or a course of events in advance, especially to prepare for it: 1533, in T. More's Confutacion of Tyndals Answere.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the first use to 1532,^[3] and Etymonline gives the 1530s with the sense "to cause to happen sooner".^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the verb took on a cluster of senses about doing things early: to bring forward a due date (from about 1535, later only in South African law, after Dutch usage),^[2] to forestall or counter an action (1547),^[2] to act before someone else (1566),^[2] to take possession of something beforehand (1594–1785),^[2] to experience something before it happens (1621),^[2] and to spend income before it is due (1642).^[2] Johnson (1755) put first the sense of taking something sooner than another, so as to prevent the one who comes after.^[10] The now usual sense, to regard something as likely or to look forward to it, is first recorded in 1749, in Smollett.^[2][8] Etymonline notes that the word keeps an element of preparing for or forestalling something, which in strict usage keeps it from being a simple synonym of expect.^[8] An adjective anticipate, anticipated, was used from 1548.^[2] Weekley credits the phrase intelligent anticipation, for an unfounded statement, to Lord Curzon.^[11]

Timeline

• 1533 – to consider or envisage in advance.^[2]
• c. 1535 – to bring forward a due date (obsolete).^[2]
• 1547 – to forestall, to act in advance so as to gain an advantage.^[2]
• 1566 – to act before another person.^[2]
• 1635 – intransitive, to raise a matter too soon.^[2]
• 1642 – to spend income before it is due.^[2]
• 1749 – to expect, to look forward to.^[2][8]
• 1792 – to come before something as its forerunner; to foreshadow.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To regard something as likely; to expect or look forward to it: We anticipate a large crowd on Saturday.
2. To see something coming and act in advance of it: The shopkeeper anticipated the storm and boarded up the windows.
3. To forestall someone or something by acting first.
4. To mention or deal with something before its proper time.
5. To do or think of something before another person does.
6. To spend or use money before it is available.

Word family

• anticipatable
• anticipator
• anticipative

Related words

• anticipation
• anticipatory
• capture
• participate
• captive

Usage notes

Etymonline points out that, strictly, anticipate implies preparing for or forestalling something, not simply expecting it.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray