To think that something will probably happen or be true. It can also mean to demand or hope for a certain behavior or result from someone.
From Latin *exspectare* meaning ‘to look out for, await’, from *ex-* (‘out’) and *spectare* (‘to look at’). It first meant literally watching for something to arrive.
Originally, to expect was to keep your eyes on the horizon, waiting. Our modern expectations are like mental horizons—what we’re looking out for shapes what we notice and how we feel when reality finally shows up.
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