4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Trivial  \Triv"i*al\,  a.  [L.  trivialis,  properly,  that  is  in  or 
  belongs  to  the  crossroads  or  public  streets;  hence  that  may 
  be  found  everywhere,  common,  fr  trivium  a  place  where  three 
  roads  meet  a  crossroad,  the  public  street;  tri-  (see  {Tri-}) 
  +  via  a  way:  cf  F.  trivial.  See  {Voyage}.] 
  1.  Found  anywhere;  common.  [Obs.] 
 
  2.  Ordinary;  commonplace;  trifling;  vulgar. 
 
  As  a  scholar,  meantime,  he  was  trivial,  and 
  incapable  of  labor.  --De  Quincey. 
 
  3.  Of  little  worth  or  importance;  inconsiderable;  trifling; 
  petty;  paltry;  as  a  trivial  subject  or  affair. 
 
  The  trivial  round,  the  common  task.  --Keble. 
 
  4.  Of  or  pertaining  to  the  trivium. 
 
  {Trivial  name}  (Nat.  Hist.),  the  specific  name 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Trivial  \Triv"i*al\,  n. 
  One  of  the  three  liberal  arts  forming  the  trivium.  [Obs.] 
  --Skelton.  Wood. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  trivial 
  adj  1:  (informal  terms)  small  and  of  little  importance;  "a  fiddling 
  sum  of  money";  "a  footling  gesture";  "our  worries  are 
  lilliputian  compared  with  those  of  countries  that  are 
  at  war";  "a  little  (or  small)  matter";  "a  dispute  over 
  niggling  details";  "limited  to  petty  enterprises"; 
  "piffling  efforts";  "giving  a  police  officer  a  free 
  meal  may  be  against  the  law,  but  it  seems  to  be  a 
  picayune  infraction"  [syn:  {fiddling},  {footling},  {lilliputian}, 
  {little},  {niggling},  {piddling},  {piffling},  {petty}, 
  {picayune}] 
  2:  obvious  and  dull;  "trivial  conversation";  "commonplace 
  prose"  [syn:  {banal},  {commonplace}] 
  3:  of  little  substance  or  significance;  "a  few  superficial 
  editorial  changes";  "only  trivial  objections"  [syn:  {superficial}] 
  4:  concerned  with  trivialities;  "a  trivial  young  woman";  "a 
  trivial  mind" 
  5:  not  large  enough  to  consider  or  notice  [syn:  {insignificant}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  trivial  adj  1.  Too  simple  to  bother  detailing.  2.  Not  worth 
  the  speaker's  time.  3.  Complex,  but  solvable  by  methods  so  well 
  known  that  anyone  not  utterly  {cretinous}  would  have  thought  of 
  them  already.  4.  Any  problem  one  has  already  solved  (some  claim  that 
  hackish  `trivial'  usually  evaluates  to  `I've  seen  it  before').  Hackers' 
  notions  of  triviality  may  be  quite  at  variance  with  those  of  non-hackers. 
  See  {nontrivial},  {uninteresting}. 
 
  The  physicist  Richard  Feynman,  who  had  the  hacker  nature  to  an 
  amazing  degree  (see  his  essay  "Los  Alamos  From  Below"  in  "Surely  You're 
  Joking,  Mr  Feynman!"),  defined  `trivial  theorem'  as  "one  that  has 
  already  been  proved". 
 
 

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