anecdote means A short account of a real incident or person, often humorous or interesting. It carries an Arena rating of 1751, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, anecdote ranks #300 of 42,747 for Qualifying, #648 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,022 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,725 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
anecdote is pronounced /ˈæn.ɪkˌdəʊt/.
Why “anecdote” is a great word
A short, often amusing or interesting account of a real incident or person, from the French anecdote, from Medieval Latin anecdota, from Greek anekdota ("things unpublished"), from an- ("not") + ekdotos ("published"), from ekdidonai ("to give out, publish"), first attested in English in the late 17th century. Unlike a parable, which is a polished fiction built to instruct, or data, which is an aggregate built to prove, an anecdote is the singular, personal truth preserved in amber: the revealing aside over brandy, the remembered quip that outlives the speech, the tiny, humanizing flaw in the marble of a great figure. It is a small, bright window into a life otherwise walled up by time—the universe's brief, unbidden gift of specificity.
Etymology
Late 17ᵗʰ c., from French anecdote, from Ancient Greek ἀνέκδοτος (anékdotos, “accounts unpublished”), from ἀν- (an-, “not, un-”) + ἔκδοτος (ékdotos, “published”), from ἐκδίδωμι (ekdídōmi, “I publish”), from ἐκ- (ek-, “out”) + δίδωμι (dídōmi, “I give”). Virtually identical cognates in other European languages – French anecdote, German Anekdote, Spanish anécdota, among others.
noun
- A short account of a real incident or person, often humorous or interesting.e.g.“tell an anecdote”
- An account which supports an argument, but which is not supported by scientific or statistical analysis.
- A previously untold secret account of an incident.
verb
- To tell anecdotes (about).e.g.“They were all men of the same set, knowing one another intimately, and knowing the same people; so they fell to talking and anecdoting in such pleasant wise that dinner-time approached […]” — 1879, Eustace Clare Grenville Murray, That Artful Vicar:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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