We explain what something trivial is, the origin of the word and its synonyms. Also, how its meaning changed throughout history.
What is something trivial?
By the adjective trivial it is understood something that, because it is ordinary and known to everyone, lacks novelty or importance. The terms banal, vulgar or common are synonymous with this word: a “trivial conversation” is one in which nothing deep or important is talked about; while a “trivial situation” can refer to everyday life, to what happens without being exceptional in any way.
The origin of the word trivial goes back to Latin trivialderived from triviuma term translatable as “three-way junction.” The historical explanation for this dictates that ancient Rome could be reached from different corners of the Roman Empire through three main roads, which eventually converged into one.
In that meeting place, there were inns, inns and places of rest for the traveler, where people of diverse origins and different interests met, among whom only superficial conversations could take place, that is, conversations of the triviumconversations trivial.
Given that the typical encounters that took place between travelers, prostitutes and soldiers in these roadside inns in Antiquity were that they were handled in colloquial, profane and popular terms, the trivial for us still has connotations linked to the uneducated, the vulgar or unrefined. In fact, in Italian it is still called trivial to foul or rude language.
However, the term trivium It was used during the European Middle Ages in the context of university education, which consisted of the teaching of the so-called seven “liberal arts” or higher: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.
Among them, those related to the mastery of words and argumentation constituted the triviumwhile those linked to mathematics made up the quadrivium. In order to address the latter, one had to first master the first three, which further reinforced the concept that the trivial is basic, simple, less elaborate.
Continue with: Obvious
References
- “Trivium” on Wikipedia.
- “Trivial” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Etymology of Trivial” in Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
