expectancy

English

Alternative forms

• expectance

Etymology

From expectant +‎ -cy or expect +‎ -ancy.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspɛkt(ə)nsi/, /ɛkˈspɛkt(ə)nsi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspɛktənsi/, /ɛkˈspɛktənsi/

Noun

expectancy (countable and uncountable, plural expectancies)

1. Expectation or anticipation; the state of expecting something.
   • 1599, John Hayward, The First Part of the Life and Raigne of King Henrie IIII. Extending to the end of the first yeare of his raigne‎^[1], London: John Woolfe, page 39:

     […] the Dukes dissembled their feares, and dissolued their forces, and remained in expectancie what would ensue.

   • 1651, John Milton, The Life and Reigne of King Charls‎^[2], London: W. Reybold, page 110:

     If you foresee not this misery, and the fatall consequence which necessarily must follow such a turn of Fortune, I must leave you to your own will and expectancy […]

   • 1735, Alexander Pope, “The Feast of Trimalchio, Imitaded”, in Mr. Pope’s Literary Correspondence‎^[3], volume 2, London: E. Curll, pages 42–43:

     […] this is generally thought to represent the Vices of Nero, who […] did from the highest Expectancy become a stubborn and a foolish Tyrant.

   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VIII, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 201–202:

     Renewed hope followed renewed effort; it shone like the former for some weeks, then, like it, it faded, flickered: not a line, not a word reached me. When half a year wasted in vain expectancy, my hope died out; and then I felt dark indeed.

   • 1912, Saki, “The Match-Maker”, in The Chronicles of Clovis‎^[4], London: John Lane, page 23:

     Six minutes later Clovis approached the supper-table, in the blessed expectancy of one who has dined sketchily and long ago.

2. The state of being expected. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
3. (law) Future interest as to possession or enjoyment
4. (statistics) expectation; expected value
5. (obsolete) Something expected or awaited.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
     The courtier’s, scholar’s, soldier’s, eye, tongue, sword,
     Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state […]

   • 1791, John Trusler, chapter 9, in The Habitable World Described‎^[5], volume 10, London: for the author, page 157:

     […] Frederic II. King of Prussia, in consequence of an expectancy granted to the house of Brandenburg, by the Emperor Leopold in 1604, took possession of East Friezland […]

Synonyms

• expectingness (rare)

Derived terms

• disconfirmed expectancy
• life expectancy

 

Translations

expectation or anticipation; the state of expecting something

• Bulgarian: очакване (bg) n (očakvane)
• Catalan: expectativa (ca) f
• Finnish: odotus (fi)
• French: attente (fr) f, espérance (fr) f, expectative (fr) f
• German: Erwartung (de) f
• Greek: προσδοκία (el) f (prosdokía)
• Romanian: anticipare (ro) f, așteptare (ro) f
• Scottish Gaelic: dòchas m, dùil f

the state of being expected, or something expected

• Bulgarian: вероятност (bg) m (verojatnost)
• Hebrew: תּוֹחֶלֶת (he) f (toẖélet)

(law) future interest as to possession or enjoyment

• French: expectative (fr) f
• German: Anwartschaft (de) f
• Italian: aspettativa (it) f