2020-11-28
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด P – petty & paltry & trivial
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง petty = ‘PET-ee’
ออกเสียง paltry = ‘PAWL-tree’
ออกเสียง trivial = ‘TRIV-ee-uhl’
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
Paltry = trashy, worthless:
The prize was too paltry to justify an effort to win.;
contemptible:
The paltry wage that they offer is an insult.
Not to be confused with:
poultry – chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese raised for food
Dictionary.com
SYNONYM STUDY FOR PETTY
Petty, paltry, trifling, trivial
apply to something that is so insignificant
as to be almost unworthy of notice.
Petty implies contemptibleinsignificance and littleness,
inferiority and small worth: petty quarrels.
Paltry is applied to something
that is beneath one's notice,
even despicable: a paltry amount.
Something that is trifling
is so unimportant and inconsiderable
as to be practically negligible: a trifling error.
Something that is trivial
is slight, insignificant, and even inincongruous contrast
to something that is significant or important:
a trivial remark; a trivial task.
Dictionary.com
HISTORICAL USAGE OF TRIVIAL
“My puns are not trivial. They are quadrivial”
is one of James Joyce’s innumerable puns.
He was playing the usual, common,
“trivial” sense of trivial,
“insignificant,” against its original English sense
“pertaining to the trivium,”
trivium being the first three ofthe seven liberal arts
in the medieval university curriculum:
(Latin) grammar, (Latin) rhetoric, and logic,
so called because these subjects
formed the “triple road to eloquence” (triplex via ad eloquentiam).
This Medieval Latin sense of trivium dates from the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th century at the court of Charlemagne.
The Latin adjective triviālis, “pertaining to a crossroads or to public streets; common, vulgar, ordinary,” is a derivative of the classical Latin noun
trivium meaning “the place where three roads meet, crossroads, intersection,”
also “the street corner, the gutter
(where bad character and manners are formed, and boys and young men ruined),”
and finally the place sacred to the goddess Hecate.
In Greek mythology, Hecate, who is associated with the moon and the netherworld, presides over (three-way) crossroads, doorways, magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and sorcery,
and is mentioned as such by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Macbeth.
The equivalent of Hecate in Roman mythology is Diana
(especially one of Diana’s multiple personae).
Regarded as a three-part deity,
Diana has been known by various names,
including Diana Trivia and simply Trivia.
Trivia is a word in Latin,
the (neuter) plural of trivium “crossroads, intersection,”
and the feminine singular of the adjective trivius “pertaining to a trivium ” (especially used as an epithet of the goddess Diana).
The modern English trivia is New Latin, being the neuter plural of trivius,
but its meaning “unimportant things, trifles, trivialities”
is influenced by triviality and dates only from the beginning of the 20th century.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary,
pet′ti•ly, adv.
pet′ti•ness, n.
syn:
petty, paltry, trivial, trifling
apply to something that is so insignificant
as to be almost unworthy of notice.
petty implies lack of significance or worth: petty quarrels.
paltry applies to something that is contemptibly small or worthless:
I was paid a paltry sum.
trivial applies to something that is slight or insignificant,
often being in contrast to something that is important:
a trivial task.
trifling is often interchangeable with trivial;
however, trifling implies an even lesser,
almost negligible, importance or worth:
to ignore a trifling error.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
paltry
Did You Know?
Before "paltry" was an adjective,
it was a noun meaning "trash."
That now obsolete noun in turn came from "palt" or "pelt,"
dialect terms meaning "a piece of coarse cloth," or broadly, "trash."
The adjective "paltry" first meant "trashy,"
but currently has a number of senses,
all generally meaning "no good."
A "paltry house" might be run-down and unfit for occupancy;
a "paltry trick" is a trick that is low-down and dirty;
a "paltry excuse" is a trivial one; and
a "paltry sum" is small and insufficient.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Trivial
Did You Know?
Trivial comes from a Latin word meaning "crossroads"
—that is, where three roads come together.
Since a crossroads is a very public place
where all kinds of people might show up,
trivialis came to mean "commonplace" or "vulgar."
Today the English word has changed slightly inmeaning
and instead usually describes something barelyworth mentioning.
Mathematicians use the word to refer to the mathematically simplest case, but the rest of us tend to use it just to mean "unimportant."
"Small talk" at a party, for example, is usually trivial conversation.
To trivialize something is to treat it
as if it doesn't matter, as if it is just another triviality.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Trivial
adjective: of little worth or importance
Trivial comes from the Latin word trivialis,
meaning "found everywhere; commonplace,"
but its origin is in the stuff of maps
and Robert Johnson legends: trivialis comes from trivium, meaning "crossroads"—from tri- and via, meaning "way."
What was seen at the crossroads of trivialis was common enough to be encountered anywhere.
In the late 16th century, that word's English descendant, trivial, was used to mean "commonplace, ordinary."
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Word History
Where Does the Word 'Trivia' Come From?
You may be quizzed on this later
When you hear the word trivia,
you might think of answering questions
on pop culture and geography with your friends around a pub table,
or going around a board collecting six colored wedges in a pie.
This common sense of the word refers not just to knowledge,
but a particular kind of knowledge:
obscure facts and details that aren'tapplicable to one's day-to-day life.
‘Trivia' comes from the Latin 'trivialis,'
meaning "found everywhere, commonplace."
One meaning of 'trivia' is "unimportant matters."
But as valuable as scholarly knowledge can be,
trivia sometimes gets a bad rap.
And that's probably because
the related adjective trivial carries meanings
that sound diminishing: "commonplace or ordinary"
and "of little worth or importance."
Related to this, another sense of trivia
is defined as "unimportant matters."
The name of the game
Trivial Pursuit plays on this sense of trivial
—a trivial pursuit is something for which one takes an interest
but is ultimately inconsequential.
"Oh, of course I'm not speaking of her as a party to a silly flirtation, or an object of any sort of trivial pursuit. But there are so many different ways of being taken." — Henry James, The Sacred Fount, 1901
In Latin, the noun trivium means"crossroads"; it was formed by combining the prefix for "three," tri-, with the noun via, meaning "road" or "way."
From there came the adjective trivialis,
which means "found everywhere, commonplace."
Trivia was derived from trivialis as a back-formation.
The "of little worth or importance" sense was well established by Shakespeare's day:
Our rash faults
Make trivial price of serious things we have,
Not knowing them until we know their grave. — All's Well That Ends Well, 1603
The accepted origin of the "commonplace" sense of trivial
is that it arose from the notion that the crossroads,
where everyone traverses, is where one encounters common things.
But there is another theory as well,
one that hinges on knowledge of a different sort.
In medieval times, the word Trivium referred to the threefold education curriculum encompassing Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric
—as opposed to the Quadrivium,
which included Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and Astronomy.
The Trivium was regarded as a prerequisite of sorts for the Quadrivium, and as the foundation of aliberal arts education.
In the word's earliest use, trivial described what belonged to the Trivium.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
Petty & paltry & trivial
Each of these words refers to
that which is so small or insignificant
as to be unworthy of notice or regard.
Petty convey an idea of contempt or ridicule:
“Your petty complaint are really childish.”
Paltry is an even stronger term,
suggesting that what is beneath notice isactually to be despised:
“Such a contribution from a wealthy person is paltry,”
That which is trivial is insignificant
and even out of place in contrast to what is really important:
“Your trivial comment on a great performance is silly.”
Related words include negligible, slight, inconsequential, inconsiderable, and trifling.
