希腊前缀an-表否定，ecdote在一起表things given out，合起来的本意是“unpublish things”。是6世纪东罗马帝国历史学家Procopius的著作，因为讲述了当时皇后Theodora成为皇后前的不光彩的经历，所以Procopius死后才出版。也被称为“Secret History”。
英文词源
anecdote
anecdote: [17] In Greek, anékdotos meant ‘unpublished’. It was formed from the negative prefix an- and ékdotos, which in turn came from the verb didónai ‘give’ (a distant cousin of English donation and date) plus the prefix ek- ‘out’ – hence ‘give out, publish’. The use of the plural anékdota by the 6th-century Byzantine historian Procopius as the title of his unpublished memoirs of the life of the Emperor Justinian, which revealed juicy details of court life, played a major part in the subsequent use of Latin anecdota for ‘revelations of secrets’, the sense which anecdote had when it first came into English.
The meaning ‘brief amusing story’ did not develop until the mid 18th century. => date, donation
anecdote (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 or directly from Greek anekdota "things unpublished," neuter plural of anekdotos, from an- "not" (see an-) + ekdotos "published," from ek- "out" + didonai "to give" (see date (n.1)).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 Anecdota, unpublished memoirs of Emperor Justinian full of court gossip, gave the word a sense of "revelation of secrets," which decayed in English to "brief, amusing stories"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).
中文解释
1、an- "not" + ec- + dot- "give" + -e. => things unpublished.2、字面意思为：things unpublished. => secret or private stories.3. Anecdote：爱你可逗她。我最爱讲这种小故事，因为可以逗我的她发笑----短故事，轶事。
实用例句
1. He departed from the text to tell an anecdote.
他偏离课文讲起了一则轶事.
来自《简明英汉词典》
2. He introduced his speech with a humorous anecdote.
他讲了一则幽默轶事作为讲演的引子.
来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
3. The image of the fox as a pest is grossly exaggerated in anecdote and folklore.
狐狸的害人精形象在传闻和民间故事中遭到严重的夸大。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Pete was telling them an anecdote about their mother.