Because I have spent my life teaching English and English vocabulary, the derivation of words is of great interest to me. I recently came across this information regarding the word “trivia.”
“Trivia” derives from “trivium,” a Latin word meaning “three roads” or, colloquially, “crossroads.” The derivative “trivialis” carried the sense of “common, ordinary, of the crossroads,” the sort of thing found anywhere, which influenced the modern meaning of “trivial” as “of no importance.” But “trivium” played an important role in Medieval education that led more directly to our modern sense of “trivia.” The “trivium” (the “three ways” or “three roads”) was the first stage of a classical education at the university level, composed of rhetoric, grammar and logic. This was followed by the more advanced postgraduate “quadrivium” (“four ways”) of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Since the “trivium” was considered “the basics,” the derivative “trivia” eventually came to mean “less important matters.”
Now we know. Have you ever played “Trivial Pursuit?” You’ll enjoy the game more now that you know from whence the name derives.