Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Anecdote

ANECDOTE, a word derived from a privative and IK&L- Sco/xi, to give out or publish, means originally something not published. It has two distinct significations. First, the primary one is something not published, in which sense it has been used to denote either secret histories, Procopius, e.g., gives this as one of the titles of his secret history of Justinian s court, or portions of ancient writers which have remained long in manuscript and are edited for the first time. Of such anecdota there are many collections; the earliest was probably Muratori s, in 1709. Besides it, there are anecdota, by Bekker, Bachmaniij Cramer, Boissonade, Matranga, Miller, Wolff, Villoisin, Amaduci, Tischendorf, and, the most recent, Val. Rose, 1864-71. There are also anecdota of more modern writers; some of these are given by Martene and Durand, Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum (1717), and Pez, Thesaurus Anecdotorum Novissimus (1721). Second, in the popular acceptation of the word, which is to be traced to their being, in the first instance, colloquial, anecdotes are relations of detached interesting particulars. Of such anecdotes the collections are almost infinite; the best in many respects is that com piled by Byerley and Clinton Robertson, known as the Percy Anecdotes (1820-23).