Anticipation
Etymology
From Latin "anticipare," “to take beforehand,” from "ante-" (before) + "capere" (to take, seize). To anticipate is literally to grasp a thing in advance — to reach forward and take hold of the future before it arrives. The mind seizes the event early and lives it in preview.
noun · /an-tis-i-PAY-shun/
The heightened feeling of looking forward to something expected.
What it names
Use it for the charged interval before an event — the pleasure or tension of the not-yet, when imagination runs ahead of reality.
Example
The anticipation in the days before the trip was almost better than the trip itself.
Related idea
Anticipation is valence-neutral, which sharpens two neighbors: pointed at a good thing it becomes hope or eagerness; pointed at a bad one it becomes dread. Research on the “anticipation phase” finds we often savor a treat more in the waiting than the having — the preview outperforms the event.