Kanji 予 beforehand, previous, myself Related words 予期しない is the modern, everyday equivalent of 予期せぬ , which sounds classical and literary due to the archaic negative せぬ .
思いがけない is more colloquial and stresses the speaker's personal surprise, while 予期せぬ is a formal, objective description of an unforeseen event.
意外 is a common na-adjective/noun meaning 'surprising, unexpected' and can stand alone as a predicate, whereas 予期せぬ only modifies a following noun.
Etymology Compound of 予期 (expectation) + classical negative auxiliary verb ぬ (not), in its prenominal form せぬ . The form せぬ is a contraction of せず (the classical negative continuative) used attributively.
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