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 CEspeciō‘to see’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEspectō‘to look at’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexspectō‘to look out for, await’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598expect
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEspeciō‘to see’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEspectō‘to look at’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEexspectō‘to look out for, await’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598expect
Earliest quotation: 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’
Every English word from Latin speciō
Today it means
verb To predict or believe that something will happen
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin speciō / expect