anecdote, antidote - vocabulary

anecdote, antidote

anecdote - noun

A brief account of an interesting or even amusing event or incident.

When the ladies removed after dinner Elizabeth ran up to her sister, and seeing her well guarded from cold, attended her into the drawing-room, where she was welcomed by her two friends with many professions of pleasure; and Elizabeth had never seen them so agreeable as they were during the hour which passed before the gentlemen appeared. Their powers of conversation were considerable. They could describe an entertainment with accuracy, relate an anecdote with humour, and laugh at their acquaintance with spirit.

—Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice (1813)

antidote - noun

A remedy given to counteract poison or a disease; often used metaphorically, as in Forbidding television in the home is often a good antidote to teenage drug abuse.

To Sergey Ivanovitch the country meant on one hand rest from work, on the other a valuable antidote to the corrupt influences of town, which he took with satisfaction and a sense of its utility. To Konstantin Levin the country was good first because it afforded a field for labour, of the usefulness of which there could be no doubt. To Sergey Ivanovitch the country was particularly good, because there it was possible and fitting to do nothing.

—Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenin (1877)

antidote - verb

To counteract with an antidote, as in To save her child, the mother antidoted the sting with baking soda.

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