triviality
(trɪvɪˈælɪtɪ)
[f. L. type *triviālitāt-em, f. triviālis trivial; cf. F. trivialité (Cotgr. 1611), It. triuialità (Florio 1598), Sp. trivialidad, Pg. trivialidade: see -ity.]
1. The quality of being trivial; commonplace or trifling character.
| 1598 Florio, Triuialità, homelines, triuiality. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 106 My severest critics have not pretended to have found in my compositions triviality. 1862 Borrow Wild Wales lxxxix. III. 228 The loss of the house was a matter of triviality compared with that of the library. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. ii. 39 The genuine excellence which underlay the superficial triviality of Crabbe's verses. |
2. With a, or (commonly) in pl.: Something trivial; a trivial matter, affair, characteristic, remark, etc.; a trifle.
| 1611 Cotgr., Trivialitez, Triuialities; triuiall, sleight, common, homelie, ordinarie matters. c 1664 Barrow in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 37, I..find little but repetitions and trivialities. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. xi. (1858) 45 A..Letter, full of compliments,..dining repartees, and other ephemeral trivialities. 1843 ― Past & Pr. iii. vi, The Practical labour of England is not a chimerical Triviality. 1877 Black Green Past. v, Archery meetings and croquet parties and such trivialities. |