trivial
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
PIE word |
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*tréyes |
- From Latin triviālis (“appropriate to the street-corner, commonplace, vulgar”), from trivium (“place where three roads meet”). Compare trivium, trivia.
- From the distinction between trivium (“the lower division of the liberal arts; grammar, logic and rhetoric”) and quadrivium (“the higher division of the seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages, composed of geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music”).[1]
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
trivial (comparative more trivial, superlative most trivial)
- Ignorable; of little significance or value.
- 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
- "All which details, I have no doubt, Jones, who reads this book at his Club, will pronounce to be excessively foolish, trivial, twaddling, and ultra-sentimental."
- 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, , page 11:
- In fact, the influence of signage in a certain area may exist anywhere on a continuum from profoundly effective to utterly trivial or completely insignificant, irrespective of the intent motivating the signs.
- Commonplace, ordinary.
- 1842, Thomas De Quincey, “Cicero”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine:
- As a scholar, meantime, he was trivial, and incapable of labour.
- Concerned with or involving trivia.
- (taxonomy) Relating to or designating the name of a species; specific as opposed to generic.
- (mathematics) Of, relating to, or being the simplest possible case.
- (mathematics) Self-evident.
- Pertaining to the trivium.
- (philosophy) Indistinguishable in case of truth or falsity.
Synonyms edit
- (of little significance): ignorable, negligible, trifling
Antonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Noun edit
trivial (plural trivials)
- (obsolete) Any of the three liberal arts forming the trivium.
- c. 1521, John Skelton, Speke Parott:
- Tryuyals, & quatryuyals, ſo ſore now they appayre
That Parrot the Popagay, hath pytye to beholde
How the reſt of good lernyng, is roufled vp & trold
- 1691, [Anthony Wood], Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year 1690. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Tho[mas] Bennet […]:
- St. Edmund was bred in this University in the Trivials and Quadrivials till he was Professor of Arts
References edit
Further reading edit
- “trivial”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “trivial”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- trivial in Britannica Dictionary
- trivial in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
- trivial in Ozdic collocation dictionary
- trivial in WordReference English Collocations
Anagrams edit
Catalan edit
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
trivial m or f (masculine and feminine plural trivials)
Further reading edit
- “trivial” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
French edit
Etymology edit
Learned borrowing from Latin triviālis.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
trivial (feminine triviale, masculine plural triviaux, feminine plural triviales)
- trivial (common, easy, obvious)
- ordinary, mundane, commonplace
- inelegant, unrefined (especially of a person's language)
- crass, crude, vulgar, obscene (words, language, behavior, etc.)
Derived terms edit
Further reading edit
- “trivial”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams edit
Galician edit
Adjective edit
trivial m or f (plural triviais)
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
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Derived terms edit
German edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French trivial, from Latin triviālis (“common”).
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
trivial (strong nominative masculine singular trivialer, comparative trivialer, superlative am trivialsten)
- trivial (common, easy, obvious)
Declension edit
number & gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | |||
predicative | er ist trivial | sie ist trivial | es ist trivial | sie sind trivial | |
strong declension (without article) |
nominative | trivialer | triviale | triviales | triviale |
genitive | trivialen | trivialer | trivialen | trivialer | |
dative | trivialem | trivialer | trivialem | trivialen | |
accusative | trivialen | triviale | triviales | triviale | |
weak declension (with definite article) |
nominative | der triviale | die triviale | das triviale | die trivialen |
genitive | des trivialen | der trivialen | des trivialen | der trivialen | |
dative | dem trivialen | der trivialen | dem trivialen | den trivialen | |
accusative | den trivialen | die triviale | das triviale | die trivialen | |
mixed declension (with indefinite article) |
nominative | ein trivialer | eine triviale | ein triviales | (keine) trivialen |
genitive | eines trivialen | einer trivialen | eines trivialen | (keiner) trivialen | |
dative | einem trivialen | einer trivialen | einem trivialen | (keinen) trivialen | |
accusative | einen trivialen | eine triviale | ein triviales | (keine) trivialen |
Related terms edit
Further reading edit
Piedmontese edit
Adjective edit
trivial
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
{{rfdef}}
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Portuguese edit
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
trivial m or f (plural triviais)
Derived terms edit
Noun edit
trivial m (plural triviais)
Further reading edit
- “trivial” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
Romanian edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
trivial m or n (feminine singular trivială, masculine plural triviali, feminine and neuter plural triviale)
Declension edit
singular | plural | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
nominative/ accusative |
indefinite | trivial | trivială | triviali | triviale | ||
definite | trivialul | triviala | trivialii | trivialele | |||
genitive/ dative |
indefinite | trivial | triviale | triviali | triviale | ||
definite | trivialului | trivialei | trivialilor | trivialelor |
Derived terms edit
Spanish edit
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
trivial m or f (masculine and feminine plural triviales)
Derived terms edit
Further reading edit
- “trivial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Swedish edit
Adjective edit
trivial (comparative trivialare, superlative trivialast)
Declension edit
Inflection of trivial | |||
---|---|---|---|
Indefinite | Positive | Comparative | Superlative2 |
Common singular | trivial | trivialare | trivialast |
Neuter singular | trivialt | trivialare | trivialast |
Plural | triviala | trivialare | trivialast |
Masculine plural3 | triviale | trivialare | trivialast |
Definite | Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
Masculine singular1 | triviale | trivialare | trivialaste |
All | triviala | trivialare | trivialaste |
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine. 2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. 3) Dated or archaic |
Derived terms edit
- trivialnamn (“common name”)