anecdote
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What is the definition and everyday use of the word “anecdote”?
It's the word of the day for August ninth. Today's word is anecdote, spelled A-N-E-C-D-O-T-E. Anecdote is a noun, and anecdote is a short narrative about an interesting, funny, or biographical incident.
How does the NASCAR driver Lavar Scott illustrate an anecdote with a family story?
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Orlando Sentinel. Standing in front of a room of about forty people, NASCAR driver Lavar Scott told stories about his racing family. One time my grandmother raced my grandfather and she flipped her mustang, said Scott. The anecdote was greeted with a chorus of laughs.
Why did Procopius’s unpublished work become the origin of the modern meaning of “anecdote”?
The Byzantine historian Procopius wrote three historical works in Greek. In the first two, he dealt with wars and public works projects, but the third was different, referred to as the anecdota from the Greek adjective anecdotos meaning unpublished, it contained bitter attacks on the emperor Justinian, his wife, and other notables of contemporary Constantinople. Understandably it was not published until after Procopius' death. English speakers originally used an anglicized version of the book's name for similar secret or unpublished histories or biographies, but by the seventeenth century the meaning of anecdote had been broadened to cover brief and interesting or amusing tales of events or incidents.
How did the meaning of “anecdote” evolve in English by the 17th century?
With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakolowski. Visit MarionWebster dot com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the definition and everyday use of the word “anecdote”?
0:06–0:24
2
How does the NASCAR driver Lavar Scott illustrate an anecdote with a family story?
0:24–0:45
3
Why did Procopius’s unpublished work become the origin of the modern meaning of “anecdote”?
0:45–1:35
4
How did the meaning of “anecdote” evolve in English by the 17th century?
1:35–1:47