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An anecdote is a short tale told about someone who is not present (often because they are already dead) which illustrates one of their character traits, often in a humorous manner. As a rule, anecdotes are considered too trivial or apocryphal to be included in a scholarly biography.
For example, Cary Grant is said to have been rather reluctant to reveal his age to the public, having played the youthful lover for more years than would have been appropriate. One day, while he was sorting out some business with his agent, a telegram arrived from a journalist who was desperate to learn how old the actor was. It read: HOW OLD CARY GRANT? Grant, who happened to open it himself, immediately cabled back: OLD CARY GRANT FINE. HOW YOU?
Usually an anecdote is based on real life, an incident involving actual persons or places. However, over time modification in reuse may convert a particular anecdote into a fictional piece. Sometimes humorous, anecdotes are not jokes, because their primary purpose is not to evoke laughter. An anecdote is in the tradition of both the parable and fable, but is distinct from them in several ways. It need not be a metaphor, but only an illustrative incident. It may or may not have a moral, a necessity in both parable and fable. It is unlikely to use animal characters as the fable usually does.
The word anecdote ("unpublished", literally "not given out") comes from Procopius of Caesarea, the biographer of Justinian I, who produced a work entitled Ανεκδοτα (variously translated as Unpublished Memoirs or Secret History), which primarily is a collection of short incidents from the private life of the Byzantine court.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.