When Trivial No Inconsequential Was Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

Trivia scarce all its life trivial was,
It meant ‘three paths’ and looked learned,
And was no stuff derived of trifling cause,
A combo word of ‘tri’ and ‘via’ made.

What shame! A word of scholarly image,
Connoting to the liberal arts three
And leading to a bachelor’s degree;
But age’s known to malign sharpest of edge.

When people ere at crossroads met,
Gossipy titbits oft did exchange, that
Wielded the word its meaning new,
And trivia took a trivial hue!

Ah from trifling to marginal,
To small and inconsequential,
To things nigh insignificant,
To petty and unimportant!

A word, good manure for human brain is,
As teasers help brain cells to irrigate,
Delay Alzheimer or put it to ease,
Oft stretching man’s best-before date!

So, words too come mortal as do men,
Like men they age, seldom be as began,
What crucial ere is turns to trivial,
And trivial turns consequential.
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The word ‘trivia’ has acquired today a meaning
quite different from what it meant to begin
with. This little ditty tells how it all went.

Scholars in the Middle Age were called
trivialists. They studied what was known as
trivium, the lower division of a university
course comprising Grammar, Rhetoric, and
Logic— three basics of the seven liberal arts.
The higher division had the remaining four
arts: Mathematics, Geometry, Music, and
Astronomy. The word trivium from Latin meant
a cross section of three roads. The former
three subjects were considered popular arts,
and the later, science. From this, trivial
began to acquire a new shade of meaning:
unscientific, to popular, to commonplace, to
even humdrum! Today it means: of little value
or importance, trifling, marginal, even petty,
and frivolous.
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-The ways of words | 01.11.09 |