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English
Etymology
expectant + -cy or expect + -ancy
Noun
expectancy (countable and uncountable, plural expectancies)
- 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, 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, 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, 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, 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.
- The state of being expected. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
- (law) Future interest as to possession or enjoyment
- (statistics) expectation; expected value
- (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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :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, 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
Derived terms
Translations
expectation or anticipation; the state of expecting something
the state of being expected, or something expected
(law) future interest as to possession or enjoyment