English
expect
Expect comes from Latin exspectō ‘to look out for, await’ (ex- + spectō ‘to look at’, frequentative of speciō ‘to see’).
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspeciō1‘to see’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspectō1‘to look at’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexspectō1‘to look out for, await’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598expect1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English expect
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “Let's in, and there expect their coming.”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspeciōWiktionary, English expect‘to see’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspectōWiktionary, English expect‘to look at’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexspectōWiktionary, English expect‘to look out for, await’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598expectWiktionary, English expect. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “Let's in, and there expect their coming.”
A compound of ex ‘out’ + spectō ‘look at’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰs ‘out’
Proto-Italic *eks
Latin ex ‘out’
Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- ‘to see, to look, to observe’
Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti ‘to be looking at, to keep looking at’
Proto-Italic *spekjō ‘to observe, see’
Latin speciō ‘look at’
Latin spectō ‘look at’
Explore everything descended from speciō →
No ads, ever. This is how the app stays alive.
Become a founding member, $29 onceWear this word, $32Support the app
Today it means
verb To predict or believe that something will happen
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “expect”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin speciō / expect