trivium

English

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes

From Latin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪviəm/

Noun

trivium (plural triviums or trivia)

1. (historical, in medieval universities) The lower division of the liberal arts; grammar, logic and rhetoric.
2. (zoology) The three anterior ambulacra of echinoderms, collectively.

Derived terms

• trivia
• trivial

Related terms

• trivialis
• quadrivium

Latin

Etymology

From tri- (“three”) +‎ via (“road”). Compare trivius (“epithet of deities having temples at the intersection of three roads”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtri.u̯i.um/, [ˈt̪riu̯iʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtri.vi.um/, [ˈt̪riːvium]

Noun

trivium n (genitive triviī or trivī); second declension

1. a crossroads or fork where three roads meet
2. (Medieval Latin) trivium

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	trivium	trivia
Genitive	triviī trivī1	triviōrum
Dative	triviō	triviīs
Accusative	trivium	trivia
Ablative	triviō	triviīs
Vocative	trivium	trivia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Descendants

• Italian: trebbio
• → English: trivium
• → Italian: trivio

Adjective

trivium

1. inflection of trivius:
   1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
   2. accusative masculine singular

References

• “trivium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “trivium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• trivium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• trivium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • Hercules at the cross-roads, between virtue and vice: Hercules in trivio, in bivio, in compitis
    
• “trivium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin trivium.

Noun

trivium n (uncountable)

1. trivium

Declension

declension of trivium (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) trivium	triviumul
genitive/dative	(unui) trivium	triviumului
vocative	triviumule