"Atlantic Trivia reaches Week 3, which is by definition the most trivial of all: The word trivia originally referred to places where three (tri-) roads (-via) met in a crossing. If those slouch Romans had been more industrious builders, we might be playing quintivia or even septivia today. That three-way intersection semantically drifted to mean "an open place," which morphed into "public," which turned into "commonplace"-hence, trivial. Read on for questions that are anything but."
"And by the way, did you know that some of the ancient writer Sappho's poetry-most of which was lost-was discovered on bits of papyrus stuffed inside a mummified crocodile? I would like to think that this was to imbue the mummy with a love of beauty or some other virtue, like putting a charm in a Build-A-Bear. More likely, the stuffer just wanted the croc to keep its shape, and Sappho's verse was handy scrap paper. Please nobody tell her."
Week 3 explains that 'trivia' derives from Latin tri- and -via, originally naming places where three roads met, and that the term's meaning drifted to 'an open place,' then 'public,' then 'commonplace,' giving rise to the modern sense of 'trivial.' Three quiz questions follow: an actor who made a habit of playing 'birdbrains' with 'ums' and 'la di da, la di das'; a Russian government-mandated app, Max, likened to a Chinese 'everything app'; and the coffee species that, alongside robusta, composes almost all global coffee production. An anecdote notes fragments of Sappho's poetry found stuffed in a mummified crocodile. The answer provided is 'Diane.'
Read at The Atlantic
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