anecdote

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈæn.ɪkˌdəʊt/ (UK); /ˈæn.ɪkˌdoʊt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French anecdote^[2][3][4] or from Medieval Latin anecdota,^[5][4] from Ancient Greek ἀνέκδοτα (anékdota, “things unpublished”),^[2][5][3][6] the neuter plural of anékdotos “unpublished”.^[5][3][4] This is formed from Ancient Greek ἀν- (an-, “not”) + ἔκδοτος (ékdotos, “published”),^[5][4] the second part coming from ekdidónai “to give out, publish”, a compound of ek- “out” and didónai “to give”.^[2][5][4][6] RHWU gives the Latin source as New Latin rather than Medieval Latin.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Secret, private or previously unpublished details of history.^[5][7][4] The word pointed especially to the Anecdota of Procopius, unpublished memoirs full of gossip about the court of Justinian.^[5][4][6]

Semantic evolution

Procopius's book gave the word the flavour of revealed secrets, which faded in English into that of a short, entertaining story, recorded from 1761.^[5][7] Wiktionary also records a recent sense: an account offered in support of an argument but not backed by systematic analysis.^[1]

Timeline

• 1670s – first recorded, “secret or private stories”;^[5] RHWU dates it 1670–80.^[6]
• 1676 – the OED's first quotation.^[7]
• 1686 – the first date in Merriam-Webster and Barnhart.^[3][4]
• 1761 – “a short account of an interesting incident”.^[5][7]
• 1786 – verb, to tell anecdotes to, or to make someone the subject of them.^[7]
• 1933 – in art, a painting that depicts a small incident.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A short account of an interesting or amusing incident, often biographical.
2. Secret or previously undisclosed details of history or biography.
3. An account given in support of an argument but not backed by scientific or statistical analysis.

Verb

1. To tell anecdotes (about).

Word family

• anecdotage
• anecdotal
• anecdotic
• anecdotist

References

1. [1] [2] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press