Wordorigins.org

Why is inconsequential or useless knowledge known as trivia? The answer dates back to the medieval educational curriculum.

The seven liberal arts were broken into two courses of study. The upper level was known as the quadrivium (Latin for four way) and consisted of the mathematical sciences of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. The lower level consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic and was known as the trivium.

To trip the light fantastic is to dance. It is an odd phrase, one that makes little sense on its face. This is because it is a garbled version of a line from Milton. In his 1632 poem L’Allegro, Milton wrote:

Com, and trip it as ye go,
On the light fantastick toe.
And in thy right hand lead with thee,
The Mountain Nymph, sweet Liberty;

It is not light that is fantastic, but rather the toe or dance step. Both trip and light refer to the movement of the feet. The verb to trip has meant to step lightly, to dance since the 14th century. From Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale from c.1386:

In twenty manere koude he trippe and daunce
After the scole of Oxenford tho.
(In twenty manners could he trip and dance
After the school of Oxford at that time.)

(Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition)

Triage is the practice of sorting into prioritized groups. It is, perhaps, most commonly used in emergency and military medicine, where is the name of the process for evaluating mass casualties and assigning priority of treatment. In a typical triage, patients are sorted into three groups, those who get immediate treatment, those who can wait, and the expectant—those expected to die—who are treated last. The cold logic is that in a situation with mass casualties, precious resources cannot be wasted on those who will most likely die anyway.

Because of this medical practice of dividing patients into three groups, it is commonly thought that triage comes from tri- or three, the sorting into three categories. This is incorrect. Triage is a borrowing from the French, which in turn is from the verb trier, meaning to pick or to cull (which is also the source of the English verb to try). The use of triage in English dates to the 18th century. From Ephraim Chambers’ Cyclopædia, written between 1727-41:

Wool, Each fleece consists of wool of divers qualities, and degrees of fineness, which the dealers therein take care to separate...If the triage, or separation be well made, in 15 bales there will be [etc.].

The medical sense can be found from World War I. From a 27 December 1915[?] diary entry by a Tracy Putnam published in Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe’s 1916 The Harvard Volunteers in Europe: Personal Records of Experience in Military, Ambulance, and Hospital Service (the year of the diary entry is not given in the book, but it is almost certainly 1915):

The triage has been transferred from Moosch to Wilier; after leaving my men at the latter place, proceeded to the former.

And from the Washington Post of 14 June 1918:

Some “Triage” Hospitals.
Back of the nontransportable hospital near Montdidier that I described yesterday we have established, in that sector a considerable number of field hospitals[.] Some of these are “triage["] hospitals that is hospitals for meeting first aid emergencies, but equipped to do surgical work if necessary.
Essentially these hospitals are for the classification and distribution of wounded to the rear according to the character of the injuries.

(Sources: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition; Newspaperarchive.com)

Jay, Antony (2007). Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Political quotations, organized by speaker.

Prucher, J., ed. (2007). Brave new words: the Oxford dictionary of science fiction. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Historical dictionary of words from science fiction.

See trespass.

See trespass.

Many people wonder about the word choice in different versions of the Lord’s Prayer. One version, favored by Roman Catholics and Anglicans, uses the phrase forgive us our trespasses. To the modern ear, trespass seems an odd word to use. Another version, favored by Protestants of the Reformed tradition, says forgive us our debts, another odd choice to the modern ear. Many modern translations simply use the word sin instead. Why the difference? It has to do with translation.

Why are coming attractions of movies called trailers, especially when they come at the beginning of the film? They’re called that because they used to to be spliced on the end of the feature film.

To understand this, you have to hearken back to the days when movies were shown in a continuous loop and audiences were allowed to sit through multiple showings of the same movie—the start times were published and if you came in late you simply sat through the next showing until you came to the point “where you came in.” This is not that long ago—I remember when this used to be the practice.

The coming attractions reel would be spliced onto the end of the last reel of the movie, hence trailer. From the perspective of the audience member who arrived on time or a little early, the coming attractions would appear before the feature, even though technically it was at the end.

The term dates to the 1920s. From the New York Times of 11 March 1928:

A trailer, a few hundred feet of film announcing a forthcoming picture.

(Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition)

These terms for immersion foot and necrotizing ulcerative gingivitus, respectively, both date to World War I. Conditions in the trenches of the Western Front led to cold injuries, like Trench Foot and bacterial infections, like Trench Mouth. Both conditions were well known prior to 1914-18, but it was the war that gave them these appellations.

Trench foot appears in the 17 April 1915 issue of The Lancet:

The term trench-foot appears to us to be the most suitable for a condition which has practically only been met with in those who have had to remain for long periods in the trenches.

Trench mouth appears in print a few years later. From the Evening Mail of 1 May 1918:

We have trench mouth, just as we have trench feet. Otherwise known as ulcero-membranous stomatitis, or Vincent’s disease.

(Vincent’s disease is after J.H. Vincent (1862-1950), a French researcher who characterized the ailment.)

Once again, the piece of internet lore titled Life in the 1500s gets this one wrong. It claims that trench mouth originated in the 1600s from the practice
of eating from unclean trenchers. It also ascribes the cause to worms, which is medically incorrect.

(Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition)