What's the origin of the word "trivia"?
by 
wickedwillie
ANSWERS: 2
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From Latin - trivia is the "place where three roads meet", tri- "three" + via "road." The basic notion is of "that which may be found anywhere, commonplace, vulgar." The meaning "ordinary" (1589) and "insignificant" (1593) were in Latin "trivialis" "commonplace, vulgar," originally "of or belonging to the crossroads." Source: Online Etymology Dictionary
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Of note too is that the "three ways" referred to the trivium, the first three courses of medieval education (logic, rhetoric, and grammar, which were followed by the quadrivium, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music). Picturing quibbling logicians, rhetoricians, and grammarians may give you an idea as to why "trivial" ("of the trivium") began to take the sense that it now holds, from which trivia was backformed.
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