different between expectancy vs belief

English

Etymology

expectant +? -cy or expect +? -ancy

Noun

expectancy (countable and uncountable, plural expectancies)

1. Expectation or anticipation; the state of expecting something.
   • 1599, John Hayward, The First Part of the Life and Raigne of King Henrie IIII. Extending to the end of the first yeare of his raigne, London: John Woolfe, p. 39,^[1]

     […] the Dukes dissembled their feares, and dissolued their forces, and remained in expectancie what would ensue.

   • 1651, John Milton, The Life and Reigne of King Charls, London: W. Reybold, p. 110,^[2]

     If you foresee not this misery, and the fatall consequence which necessarily must follow such a turn of Fortune, I must leave you to your own will and expectancy […]

   • 1735, Alexander Pope, Mr. Pope’s Literary Correspondence, London: E. Curll, Volume 2, “The Feast of Trimalchio, Imitaded,” pp. 42-43,^[3]

     […] this is generally thought to represent the Vices of Nero, who […] did from the highest Expectancy become a stubborn and a foolish Tyrant.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 34,^[4]

     Renewed hope followed renewed effort: it shone like the former for some weeks, then, like it, it faded, flickered: not a line, not a word reached me. When half a year wasted in vain expectancy, my hope died out, and then I felt dark indeed.

   • 1912, Saki, “The Match-Maker” in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, p. 23,^[5]

     Six minutes later Clovis approached the supper-table, in the blessed expectancy of one who has dined sketchily and long ago.

2. The state of being expected. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
3. (obsolete) Something expected or awaited.
   • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1,^[6]

     O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!

     The courtier’s, scholar’s, soldier’s, eye, tongue, sword,

     Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state […]

   • 1791, John Trusler, The Habitable World Described, London, for the author, Volume 10, Chapter 9, p. 157,^[7]

     […] Frederic II. King of Prussia, in consequence of an expectancy granted to the house of Brandenburg, by the Emperor Leopold in 1604, took possession of East Friezland […]

Synonyms

• expectingness (rare)

Derived terms

• life expectancy

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English bileve, from Old English l?afa, from Proto-Germanic *laubô. Compare German Glaube (“faith, belief”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??li?f/, /b??li?f/
• Rhymes: -i?f
• Hyphenation: be?lief

Noun

belief (countable and uncountable, plural beliefs)

1. Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
2. Faith or trust in the reality of something; often based upon one's own reasoning, trust in a claim, desire of actuality, and/or evidence considered.

3. (countable) Something believed.
4. (uncountable) The quality or state of believing.

5. (uncountable) Religious faith.

6. (in the plural) One's religious or moral convictions.

Derived terms

• beliefful
• beyond belief
• disbelief
• forebelief
• self-belief
• unbelief
• wanbelief

Related terms

• believe

Translations

Anagrams

• befile, belfie

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

belief

1. imperative of believen

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [b??li?f]
• Hyphenation: be?lief

Verb

belief

1. first-person singular preterite of belaufen
2. third-person singular preterite of belaufen