expectation

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌek.spekˈteɪ.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French expectation (14th century) or directly borrowed from Latin exspectātiō (“anticipation, an awaiting”),^[2][3] from the past participle of exspectāre, to look out for (see expect).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Waiting or awaiting with confident anticipation: 1538 in Merriam-Webster, the 1530s in Etymonline, 1550 in the OED.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

Mentally looking for something to happen is from 1552,^[4] and looking for something as one's due, with expectations as what one hopes to receive, from 1655.^[4] The sense in Dickens's Great Expectations, prospects of future good such as an inheritance, is from the 1660s.^[2] In probability theory an expectation is an expected value.^[5]

Timeline

• 1538 – anticipation.^[3]
• 1552 – forecasting.^[4]
• 1655 – looking for one's due.^[4]
• 1660s – prospects of inheritance.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act or state of expecting; anticipation.
2. Something hoped for or looked forward to, often in the plural: great expectations.
3. A belief about what someone should do or achieve: to live up to expectations.
4. (mathematics) The expected value of a random variable.

Word family

• expectational
• expectationist
• overexpectation
• preexpectation
• Expectation Sunday
• Expectation Week

Related words

• expect
• expectant
• spectator
• inspect

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin