We find in a work from 1432-50 mention of the "arte trivialle," an allusion to the three liberal arts that made up the trivium, the lower division of the seven liberal arts taught in medieval universities-grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Word History: The word trivial entered Middle English with senses quite different from its most common contemporary ones. What is picayune is of negligible value or importance: "Everything was numbers-oriented-better to close out thirty-five picayune cases than go after two quality ones" (Selwyn Raab). Petty usually refers to what is of minor or lesser significance: "Religious slurs, temper tantrums, insults, coercion, debt: all petty things, really, irritants-too minor, it would seem, to move five reasonable people to murder" (Donna Tartt). Paltry describes what falls so far short of what is required or desired that it arouses contempt: "The mere fact of grave issues in life depending on such paltry things is monstrously ludicrous" (George Gissing). "Now he was smitten with compunction, yet irritated that so trifling an omission should be stored up against him after nearly two years of marriage" (Edith Wharton).
Trivial and trifling refer to what is so insignificant as to be utterly commonplace or unremarkable: "Both sides appreciated that behind this apparently trivial matter of naval salutes lay weighty issues of sovereignty at sea" (Simon Schama).
These adjectives all apply to what is unimportant and of little consequence. Synonyms: trivial, trifling, paltry, petty, picayune
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