I'm such a big nerd that I tend to look up word origins in my spare time because I'm fascinated by our language. The odder the origin, the better. I've got a collection of random information in my brain that makes me an awesome Trivial Pursuit partner, but is completely useless when it comes to real world application. Like say, job applications.
I thought I'd share some of this random crap with you in the form of another acronym-ific series. I give you - Word Origins from Left Field - that's right, the WOLF. Er... ignore the fact that the "from" doesn't fit.
This week I came across something awesome and fitting. As I am such a big fan of the inane and trivial I looked up the origin or the word... trivial.
Trivial has its origins in the physical layout of Ancient Rome. Say what? No really. We've learned a lot from the Romans but one thing we didn't take from them is street grids. Ancient Rome was a twisty, turny city. There were many places where three roads converged, dumping all their foot traffic into a convenient location for temples and food carts. And who wants to eat alone? Lollygagging and gossiping became a trademark of these areas, and any news that one overheard there was usually of the non-important sort, thus it was tri (Latin prefix for "three") via (Latin for "way" or "road").