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a short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature.
a short, obscure historical or biographical account.
Contemporary Examples

Ribowsky is at his best making surprising connections from his heap of anecdotes and quotes.
The Only Sportscaster That Mattered: New Biography of Howard Cosell Robert Lipsyte November 19, 2011

anecdotes run the gamut from simple spills to drunken collisions with large vehicles.
Biking While Drunk Anneli Rufus October 14, 2010

There was always time in our work sessions for stories and anecdotes.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days David Freeman December 12, 2014

Her grammar is fine—Ann is a stickler for grammar—and her anecdotes make sense in that they have a beginning, a middle and an end.
Hatchet Job of the Year 2014 Shortlist Announced The Telegraph January 18, 2014

Hopefully these anecdotes will offer up culinary and conversational inspiration this Thanksgiving.
Food Writers Share Thanksgiving Stories Jessica Ferri November 23, 2011

Historical Examples

Perhaps like all anecdotes it may have grown in the telling.
Introducing the American Spirit Edward A. Steiner

anecdotes of the same description could be given without end.
The Mines and its Wonders W.H.G. Kingston

On this point Abélard quotes, with stolidest approval, one of the most heart-rending of anecdotes.
Renaissance Fancies and Studies Violet Paget (AKA Vernon Lee)

Nor as art do their pictures interest you any more than as anecdotes.
Children’s Books and Their Illustrators Gleeson White

That we must attribute to cats the estimable virtue of benevolence, Mrs F— gives me two anecdotes to prove.
Stories of Animal Sagacity W.H.G. Kingston

noun
a short usually amusing account of an incident, esp a personal or biographical one
n.

1670s, “secret or private stories,” from French anecdote (17c.) or directly from Greek anekdota “things unpublished,” neuter plural of anekdotos, from an- “not” (see an-) + ekdotos “published,” from ek- “out” + didonai “to give” (see date (n.1)).

Procopius’ 6c. Anecdota, unpublished memoirs of Emperor Justinian full of court gossip, gave the word a sense of “revelation of secrets,” which decayed in English to “brief, amusing stories” (1761).