Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TRIV'I-AL, a. [Fr. from L. trivalis; probably from the Gr. τριβω, L. tero, trivi, to wear, or from trivium, a highway.]

1. Trifling; of little worth or importance; inconsiderable; as, a trivial subject; a trivial affair. Dryden. Pope.
2. Worthless; vulgar. Roscommon. Trivial name, in natural history, the name for the species, which added to the generic name forms the complete denomination of the plant; the specific name. Thus in Lathyrus aphaca, Lathyrus is the generic name, and aphaca the trivial or specific name, and the two combined form the complete denomination of the plant. Linnæus at first applied the phrase specific name to the essential character of the species, now called the specific definition or difference; but it is now applied solely to the trivial name. Martyn. Cyc.