counterexpectational

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From counter- +‎ expectational.

Adjective[edit]

counterexpectational (comparative more counterexpectational, superlative most counterexpectational)

  1. (chiefly linguistics) That goes against expectations; unexpected.
    • 2018, John H. McWhorter, The Creole Debate, Cambridge University Press, page 18:
      For example, in Saramaccan, property items can be reduplicated to encode counterexpectational semantics.