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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Trivial


TRIV'IAL, adjective [Latin trivialis; probably from Gr.; Latin tero, trivi, to wear, or from trivium, a highway.]

1. Trifling; of little worth or importance; inconsiderable; as a trivial subject; a trivial affair.

2. Worthless; vulgar.

Trivial name, in natural history, the common name for the species, which added to the generic name forms the complete denomination of the species; the specific name. Thus in Lathyrus aphaca, Lathyrus is the generic name, and aphaca the trivial or specific name, and the two combined form the complete denomination of the species. Linne at first applied the term specific name to the essential character of the species, now called the specific definition or difference; but it is now applied solely to the trivial name.