post-mortem human subjects

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:36 PM -0600 11/4/10, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>Interesting that you mention "trivium". I was just helping my 8yo to set
>up a mock-up of a page similar to those found in Animalia. His initial
>pick was the letter Q, so everything on the page had to have a name (not
>always trivial) that would start with Q--quails and quaggas being the
>main actors.
>
>One word we came up with in this context was "quadrivium". Of course,
>that was connected to "trivium"--in at least one of its meanings.
>Perhaps this is the reason why even individual factoids are normally
>referred to as "trivia". Or, perhaps, there is a reason that more
>directly relates to original morphology.
>
>     VS-)

I was always offended that the (original) trivia are precisely the
subjects that I work on (grammar, logic, rhetoric) while the
(original) quadrivia are (among) those I don't (arithmetic, geometry,
astronomy, music).  Well, I do have my iTunes on in the background
while I work on my trivial subjects...

LH

>
>On 11/4/2010 5:45 AM, Paul Frank wrote:
>>Here's a trivium for you: ...
>>P.S. How come people don't singularize the word "trivia"?
>>
>>Paul Frank
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org