trivial English · revision 140
5 Oct 2026, 22:03 by bogdan “Add pronunciation, sense history, timeline, meanings, word family, related words” current version
Changes in this edit
@@ -1,6 +1,44 @@
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA: /ˈtɹɪv.i.əl/, /ˈtɹɪv.jəl/^(Wiktionary)
+
==Etymology==
− Recorded in the sense “ordinary” from the 1580s and “insignificant, trifling” from the 1590s,^(Etymonline) [[bor|la|triviālis|t=commonplace, vulgar; literally of the crossroads]],^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate) [[der|la|trivium|t=place where three roads meet]],^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate) from ''tri-'' “three” + ''via'' “road”.^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) The sense connection is “public”, hence “common, commonplace”.^(Etymonline)
+ It is [[bor|la|triviālis|t=commonplace, vulgar; literally of the crossroads]],^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate) [[der|la|trivium|t=place where three roads meet]],^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate) from ''tri-'' “three” + ''via'' “road”.^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) The sense connection is “public”, hence “common, commonplace”.^(Etymonline)
− An earlier 15th-century ''trivialle'' was a separate borrowing from [[la-med|triviālis]] in the academic sense “belonging to the [[trivium]]” (grammar, rhetoric and logic).^(Etymonline)^(AHD)
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ In the 15th century ''trivialle'' meant “belonging to the [[trivium]]”, the first three liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, and logic), a separate borrowing from [[la-med|triviālis]].^(Etymonline)^(AHD)^(OED 1989)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ The modern senses come from Latin ''triviālis'' “commonplace”: “ordinary” (1589), then “of little importance” (1593).^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)^(AHD) Latin ''trivium'', the meeting place of three roads, was a place of public resort, which gave the adjective its sense “appropriate to the street corner, commonplace, vulgar”.^(AHD) In mathematics ''trivial'' describes the simplest possible case, such as a solution in which every variable is zero (1915).^(OED 1989)^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate) For the sense “useless information”, compare [[trivia]].^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 1432–50 – “belonging to the trivium”.^(OED 1989)
+ * 1589 – “commonplace, ordinary”.^(OED 1989)^(MW Collegiate)^(AHD)
+ * 1593 – “of small account, trifling”.^(OED 1989)
+ * 1915 – in mathematics, “of no consequence, e.g. because equal to zero”.^(OED 1989)
+
+ ==Modern meaning==
+ ===Adjective===
+ # Of little importance or value.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # Ordinary, commonplace.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # ''(mathematics)'' Being the simplest possible case; self-evident.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # ''(biology)'' Of a species name: specific rather than generic.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[trivially]]
+ * [[trivialist]]
+ * [[supertrivial]]
+ * [[trivialise]]
+ * [[trivialism]]
+ * [[trivialize]]
+ * [[untrivial]]
+ * [[trivia]]
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[trifling]]
+ * [[paltry]]
+ * [[petty]]
+
+ ==Usage notes==
+ ''Trivial'' refers to what is so insignificant as to be utterly commonplace;^(AHD) ''trifling'' to what is scarcely worth notice;^(AHD) ''paltry'' to what falls so short that it arouses contempt;^(AHD) and ''petty'' to what is minor, often suggesting meanness of spirit.^(AHD)
==References==