An anecdote is a short taleA narrative is a text, composed in any medium, which describes a sequence of real or unreal events. It derives from the Latin verb narrare, which means "to recount" and is related to the adjective gnarus, meaning "knowing" or "skilled".Oxford English Dictionary Online, "narrate, v.". Oxford University Press, 2007 (Ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ghnu, "to know".) The word "story" may be used as ...tale narrating an interesting or amusing biographicalBiography (from the Greek words bios meaning "life", and graphein meaning "write") is a genre of literature and other forms of media such as film, based on the written accounts of individual lives. While a biography may focus on a subject of fiction or non-fiction, the term is usually in reference to non-fiction. Pat Shipman however, says "I think a good biographer has to write fiction some of the time to make apparent a significant event in someone's life." This is sometimes debated. As opposed to a profile or curriculum vitae, ...biographical incident. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon motNo quick definition available.bon mot. An anecdote is always based on real life, an incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, in real places. However, over time, modification in reuse may convert a particular anecdote to a fictional piece, one that is retold but is "too good to be true". Sometimes humorous, anecdotes are not jokesA joke is a short story or ironic depiction of a situation communicated with the intent of being humorous. A practical joke or prank differs from a spoken one in that the humor is mainly physical rather than verbal (e.g. placing salt in the sugar bowl, or more cruel "jokes" such that involve destruction of another's property). Jokes are typically for the entertainment of friends and onlookers. The desired response is generally laughter, although loud groans of revealed stupidity are also a common response to some ...jokes, because their primary purposePurpose in its most general sense is the anticipated aim which guides action. It is used as the synonym of goal and objective.purpose is not simply to evoke laughter, but to reveal a truth more general than the brief tale itself, or to delineate a character trait or the workings of an institution in such a light that it strikes in a flash of insight to their very essence. A brief monologue beginning "A man pops in a bar..." will be a joke. A brief monologue beginning "Once J. Edgar HooverJohn Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an influential but controversial director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was the founder of the present form of the agency, and remained director for 48 years until his death in 1972, at age 77. During his life he was highly regarded by the US public, but in the years ...J. Edgar Hoover popped in a bar..." will be an anecdote. An anecdote thus is closer to the tradition of the parableA parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. It differs from a fable in excluding animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of humankind.parable than the patently invented fable:For a comparison of fable with other kinds of stories, see Myth, legend, fairy tale, and fable. A fable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim. A fable differs ...fable with its animal characters and generic human figures— but it is distinct from the parable in the historical specificity which it claims. An anecdote is not a metaphorIn literary analysis, a metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin) is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. In the simplest case, this takes the form: "The [first subject] is a [second subject]." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second subject in some way. Thus, the first subject can be economically described because implicit and explicit attributes from the second subject are used to enhance the description of the ...metaphor nor does it bear a moralA moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. As an example of the latter, at the end of Aesop's fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, in which the plodding and determined ...moral, a necessity in both parable and fable, merely an illustrative incident that is in some way an epitomeAn epitome (Greek epitemnein—to cut short) is a summary or miniature form, also used as a synonym for embodiment.epitome.

Note that in the context of LithuanianLithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Respublika), is a country in northern Europe. United Nations Geographical region and composition Situated along the south-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave ...Lithuanian, Bulgarian and Russian humorRussian humour gains much of its wit from the great flexibility and richness of the Russian language, allowing for plays on words and unexpected associations. As with any other culture's humour, its vast scope ranges from lewd jokes and silly wordplay to political satire.Russian humor anecdote refers to any short humorous story without the need of factual or biographical origins.

The word anecdote ("unpublished", literally "not given out") comes from Procopius of Caesarea:Procopius is also a spider genus (Corinnidae). Procopius of Caesarea (in Greek Προκόπιος, c. 500 - c. 565) was a prominent Eastern Roman scholar of the family Procopius. He is commonly held to be the last major ancient historian.Procopius of Caesarea, the biographer of Justinian IJustinian I or Justinian the Great (Latin: Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus, Greek: Ιουστινιανός; 482/483 – November 13 or November 14 565) was Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 until his death, and second member of the Justinian Dynasty, after his uncle Justin I. He is considered a saint ...Justinian I, who produced a work entitled Ανεκδοτα (Anekdota, variously translated as Unpublished Memoirs or Secret History), which is primarily a collection of short incidents from the private life of the ByzantineThe Byzantine Empire or Byzantium is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, centered around its capital of Constantinople. The Empire is also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, although this name is more commonly used when referring to the time before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. During much of its history it was known to many of ...Byzantine court. Gradually, the term anecdote came to be applied to any short tale utilized to emphasize or illustrate whatever point the author wished to make.

As a rule, biographical anecdotes are considered too trivialTrivia (singular: trivium) are unimportant (or "trivial") items, especially of information. In the late twentieth century the expression came to apply more to information of the kind useful almost exclusively for answering quiz questions: a perfect "trivia question" is one that initially stumps the listener, but the answer subsequently sounds ...trivial or apocryphalApocrypha (from the Greek word, meaning "those having been hidden away"Specifically, is the neuter plural of ἀπόκρυφος, a participle derived from the verb ἀποκρύπτω [infinitive: ἀποκρύπτειν], "to hide something away".) are texts of uncertain authenticity or writings where the authorship is questioned. In Judeo-Christian theology, the term apocrypha refers to any collection of scriptural texts that falls outside the canon. Given that different denominations have different ideas ...apocryphal to be included in a scholarly biographyBiography (from the Greek words bios meaning "life", and graphein meaning "write") is a genre of literature and other forms of media such as film, based on the written accounts of individual lives. While a biography may focus on a subject of fiction or non-fiction, the term is usually in reference ...biography.

Anecdotes are typically oral and ephemeral. They are just one of the many types of stories told in organizations and the collection of anecdotes from people in an organization can be used to better understand its organizational culture (Snowden, 1999; Gabriel, 2000).