From Latin 'anticipare' (to take before), combining 'ante' (before) and 'capere' (to seize) — anticipation originally meant acting prematurely, not looking forward.
The act of looking forward to something; expectation or prediction of a future event, often with pleasure or anxiety.
From Latin 'anticipatio' (a preconception, a taking beforehand), the noun form of 'anticipare' (to take before, to forestall), composed of 'ante-' (before) and 'capere' (to take, to seize). The word entered English through Old French 'anticipacion' in the late fourteenth century, initially meaning 'the act of taking something before the proper time' — a sense now largely obsolete. The modern sense of pleasurable expectation developed gradually
In music theory, an 'anticipation' is a specific ornamental note played before the chord to which it belongs — literally sounding a note before its proper time. This technical usage preserves the word's original Latin meaning of 'taking before the due moment,' which has otherwise faded from everyday English.