trivial

Etymology

Recorded in the sense “ordinary” from the 1580s and “insignificant, trifling” from the 1590s,^[1] borrowed from Latin triviālis (“commonplace, vulgar; literally of the crossroads”),^[1][2] from Latin trivium (“place where three roads meet”),^[1][2] from tri- “three” + via “road”.^[2][3] The sense connection is “public”, hence “common, commonplace”.^[1]

An earlier 15th-century trivialle was a separate borrowing from Medieval Latin triviālis in the academic sense “belonging to the trivium” (grammar, rhetoric and logic).^[1][4]

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. [1] [2] [3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. [1] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. [1] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin