The state of expecting that something will happen.
The state of expecting that something will happen — more neutral and cognitive than emotional.
The most neutral and cognitive member: it foregrounds the belief that something will occur, the likelihood dimension, more than strong feeling (“expect implies a high degree of certainty”). Lower-desire and higher-certainty than hope (you can expect what you don't want); cooler than the felt looking-forward of anticipation; without the tension of suspense or the impatience of eagerness. Often a poised, attentive state (“an air of expectancy”); also neutral in “life expectancy.”
1590s “act or state of expecting,” from Latin expectare “await, look out for; desire, hope” (ex- “thoroughly” + spectare “to look”).
The verb expect first meant “wait, defer action” (1550s); the “look forward to” sense developed by c. 1600. Expectancy has been stable in the “state of expecting” sense since the 1590s; “life-expectancy” is from 1847. No reliable recent-generation shift.