expectant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English expectaunt,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin exspectāns (“expecting”), also expectāns, the present participle of exspectō (“to await, look forward to”).^{[4][2][5][6][7]} Etymonline allows Old French expectant as a source beside the Latin.^[8] The OED compares the Middle French noun expectant (“a person who waits”), of the second half of the 15th century, and Spanish expectante, of the first half of that century.^[4] The medical sense of a treatment that waits on the course of nature follows the French use of expectant in 1803.^[4] The word belongs with expect, and its suffix is -ant.^[8][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Expecting to take up a position or office: before 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis, the OED's first record.^[4] Etymonline dates the adjective to the late 14th century,^[8] Dictionary.com to 1350–1400,^[9] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 14th century.^[2] The general sense of looking forward to something follows before 1425, in the Middle English Romaunt of the Rose.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first described someone in line for a post or an inheritance, as in heir expectant, and soon anyone awaiting or anticipating something.^[4][5] In law it came to describe property that will fall to a person in reversion or remainder (1600).^[4][5] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "waiting in expectation" and the noun as "one who waits in expectation of any thing; one held in dependance by his hope".^[10] In Scotland an expectant was a candidate for the ministry who had not yet been licensed to preach;^[4][11] the Wright dialect dictionary quotes an Assembly act at Glasgow of 1641 forbidding such men to preach in public.^[11] In the early 19th century medicine took the word from French for treatment that leaves events to take their course.^[4][5] The sense "expecting the birth of a child", now the most familiar in expectant mother and expectant father, is recorded from 1806 in the OED,^[4] while Etymonline dates "pregnant" to 1861.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1393 – expecting to take up a position or office.^[4]
• before 1425 – awaiting or looking forward to something.^[4]
• 1569 – expected to come, especially of a reward or benefit.^[4]
• 1588 – noun, a person who expects something.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun to 1609 and Etymonline to the 1620s.^[2][8]
• 1600 – in law, of property: due to come to a person in reversion.^[4]
• 1613 – noun, a candidate for an office; in Scotland, for the ministry.^[4]
• 1654 – noun, a person expected to inherit something.^[4]
• 1803 – of medical treatment, leaving nature to take its course.^[4]
• 1806 – expecting the birth of one's child.^[4] Etymonline dates this sense to 1861.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Waiting for something to happen; anticipating or hopeful: The audience fell into an expectant silence.^[12][2][4]
2. Expecting the birth of a child; pregnant: expectant mother, expectant father.^[12][2][4]
3. Looking forward to coming into a possession, position or inheritance.^[12][4][5]
4. (law) Of property: due to come to a person in reversion or remainder.^[4][5]
5. Of medical treatment: leaving the illness to take its course rather than intervening.^[4][5]

Noun

1. A person who expects something.^[12][2][4]
2. (historical) A candidate for an office; in Scotland, a candidate for the ministry not yet licensed to preach.^[4][12][11]

Word family

• expectantly
• expectancy
• overexpectant

Related words

• expect
• expectation

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins