trivial

Definitions

tri- (three) + vi (via, 'road') + -al (adj.) = 'of the three-road crossroads.' The Latin trivium was the busy junction where townspeople met and swapped gossip. Talk picked up at the three-ways was common, everyday, unimportant — so trivial came to mean petty and insignificant.

Why It Means This

The most surprising member of the family. In a Roman town a trivium was a 'three-road' crossroads — the crowded junction where everyone bumped into each other and traded gossip and small talk. Such crossroads talk was ordinary, everyday, of no consequence, so the adjective trivial drifted to mean petty and unimportant. The image of a busy, bustling intersection is the exact opposite of what the word now means.

Common Collocations

• 1.trivial matter琐碎的事情
• 2.trivial detail细枝末节
• 3.seem trivial显得微不足道
• 4.far from trivial绝非小事

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Don't waste time arguing over such trivial matters.

• 2.

  The repair was a trivial job that took five minutes.

• 3.

  For a mathematician, that proof is almost trivial.

Synonym Comparison