trivial English · revision 20

+ ==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)

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+ 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)

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}