Dictionary

trivium en · NOUN

Pronunciation

/ˈtɹɪviəm/

Etymology

PIE word *tréyes Borrowed from Latin trivium.

Meanings

(historical) The lower division of the liberal arts in a medieval university; grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
- The riddle of existence is the college curriculum that was laid before the Pharaohs, that was taught in the groves by Plato, that formed the trivium and quadrivium, and is to-day laid before the freedmen’s sons by Atlanta University. 1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC:
- We find in a broad survey of schools in general that there has also been a disposition to develop a special training in thought and expression either in the mother tongue (as in the Roman schools of Latin oratory), or in the culture tongue (as in Roman schools of Greek oratory), and we find the same element in the mediaeval trivium. 1903, H. G. Wells, Mankind in the Making, Chapman & Hall:
- As to the nature of his studies, there can be no doubt that he [Dante] went through the trivium (grammar, dialectic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy) of the then ordinary university course. 1876, James Russell Lowell, Among My Books, Second series:
- Surely some demon must possess the lad, / Who showed more wit than ever school-boy had, / And learned his Trivium thus without the rod; / But Alcuin said it was the grace of God. 1873 August, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[I. Tales of a Wayside Inn.] The Student’s Tale. Emma and Eginhard.”, in Aftermath, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 23:
The three anterior ambulacra of echinoderms, collectively.
(form-of, rare, singular) Singular of trivia; anything of little importance.
form of trivia
- Harcourt, Brace, and Co.: for an excerpt from Stuart Chase’s The Tyranny of Words; for E. M. Forster’s “My Wood,” in Abinger Harvest; and for a trivium from Logan Pearsall Smith’s All Trivia. 1950 August, Leo Kirschbaum, “Acknowledgments”, in Clear Writing, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, page v:
- For the most part, Mrs. Fenner lays stress on the personalities and accomplishments of the executive secretaries, which is as it should be, since these gentlemen remained longer in the center of things than the presidents, who were elected for one year. The style is unpedantic and is flavored with references to colorful trivia, as for example, to the drunken janitor (p. 37) and to the romantic outcomes of NEA conventions (p. 28). Perhaps matrimony is not a trivium. 1946 September 14, William W. Brickman, “Books: For the Advancement of Teaching NEA History: The National Education Association: Its Development and Program. By Mildred Sandison Fenner. […]”, in I[saac] L[eon] Kandel, L. Remmy Beyer, editors, School and Society, volume 64, number 1655, Lancaster, Pa.: […] [F]or The Society for the Advancement of Education, Inc., at The Science Press, page 191, column 2:
- […] question of sympathy or antipathy sometimes evoked by a trivium; and in the category of trivia many learned and responsible individuals include Motion Pictures. Only they are not so trivial if we consider the power of feeling evoked by Motion Pictures, and the number of movie-goers. 1943, Michael Melucci, Political Cinematology: How Motion Pictures and Television Will Shape the Political Destiny of America (Tele-Screen Century Series; 2), Newark, N.J.: Variety Press, →OCLC, page 29:
- Smith (Logan Pearpall^([sic])) Junior: First Trivium. I missed the train this morning, of all mornings. […] The usual prizes are offered for a “trivium” (not more than 150 words) in the manner of the late Logan Pearsall Smith, on Gallup Polls. 1948, New Statesman and Nation, volume 36, pages 382 and 450:
- Like so many things in life the calendar can easily be an over-conditioning factor unless one allows the measuring of time to drain away into the silence of a music that tells no time. Whether the year 2001 is referred to as Two-Oh-Oh-One or Twenty-O-One (to avoid the ponderous ‘thousand’ bit), that point of no return will be just another bridge to cross—if and when we come to it—and I imagine the transition will occur quietly without the slightest shudder. In aeons to come the third millennium will end up a trivium among timeless trivia. 1996 September, Books Ireland, numbers 192–200, page 242, column 3: