anecdote

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anecdote

anecdote , brief narrative of a particular incident. An anecdote differs from a short story in that it is unified in time and space, is uncomplicated, and deals with a single episode. The literal Greek meaning of the word is "not published," and it still retains some such sense of confidentiality. Sometimes an anecdote is inserted into a novel as an interval in the main plot, as in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Famous books of anecdotes include the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus and Plutarch's Lives.

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anecdote

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | © The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2009, originally published by Oxford University Press 2009. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

an·ec·dote / ˈanikˌdōt/ • n. a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. | he had a rich store of anecdotes. ∎ an account regarded as unreliable or hearsay: his wife's death has long been the subject of rumor and anecdote. ∎ the depiction of a minor narrative incident in a painting.

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anecdote

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | Â© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

anecdote †(pl.) secret history XVII; story of a detached incident XVIII. orig. pl. — modL. anecdota (or its deriv. F. anecdotes) — Gr. anékdota things unpublished, n. pl. pp. f. AN-2 + ek out + didónai give. Derived primarily from the title Anékdota of Procopius' unpublished memoirs (VII) of the private life of the Emperor Justinian and Theodora.
Hence anecdotage XIX.

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T. F. HOAD. "anecdote." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved November 10, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-anecdote.html

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