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Originally Posted by poohbear_nc
2, Well, trivium was also a curriculum of studies in England, right? Which included 3 main subject areas? Which covered a broad area of topics?  |
You have it.
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The "trivium" (the "three ways" or "three roads") was the first stage of a classical education at the university level, composed of rhetoric, grammar and logic. This was followed by the more advanced postgraduate "quadrivium" ("four ways") of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Since the "trivium" was considered "the basics," the derivative "trivia" eventually came to mean "less important matters."
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There's also what is probably a back-derivation, that trivium is a fork in a road (where three roads meet) where Romans would gather for chit-chat: trivia.
I suspect that the education level one is the correct origin.