Oct 24, 2023
This puzzler today was my brother's puzzler. Here we go.
My brother was very into words. He was into the derivations of words. And he was a Latin scholar.
So, back in Roman times, you know they would say, 'All roads lead to Rome."
Well, there were many roads that did lead to Rome. And also, many of these roads that led to Rome would intersect.
And in some places, there were instances where two roads intersected, and sometimes there would be three roads that intersected.
So, because of these intersections of these three roads, it was a practice that people would stop and talk, they'd have a drink or a bite to eat. And sometimes they would leave messages for their friends in this place where the roads intersected. Back then, there were no phones or emails, so they would write messages and tack them up on a stone pillar or what have you. The styles of columns. And they would come by and tack up little notes and items of interest.
And the puzzler is this.
An interesting English word derives from this little story. Embedded in this little story I just told, there is an English word.
What is it and how come it derives from this little story?
So what is the English word that is derived from this little story about three roads intersecting and leading back to Rome?
And here it is.
In Latin, the way to say 'three roads' is 'tres viae', translated directly to 'three roads.'
However in English, when we say three, we sometimes abbreviate that to the prefix, 'tri,' T.R.I.
And then we leave off the last letter in 'viae,' to mean a singular road. V.I.A.
So you put those together and you get the English word, 'TRIVIA,' which refers to the little messages that were left on the columns in the intersections, on the way to and from Rome.
So those little notes of news and information that were left at those intersections became known as trivia, which is derived from the Latin term 'tres viae', 'three roads.'
And we still use the word 'trivia' today to mean little bits of information.
