Anticipation

From Latin anticipatio; compare with French anticipation.

Full definition of anticipation

(plural anticipations)

The act of anticipating, taking up, placing, or considering something beforehand, or before the proper time in natural order.
Often the anticipation of a shot is worse than the pain of the stick.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery.

The eagerness associated with waiting for something to occur.
He waited with great anticipation for Christmas to arrive.

ThodeyThe happy anticipation of renewed existence in company with the spirits of the just.
1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 8, The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;.... Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.

(finance) Prepayment of a debt, generally in order to pay less interest.
(rhetoric) Prolepsis.
(music) A non-harmonic tone that is lower or higher than a note in the previous chord and a unison to a note in the next chord.
(obsolete) Hasty notion; intuitive preconception.

John Locke (1632-1705)Many men give themselves up to the first anticipations of their minds.