Talk:Trivium

Vandalism removed. — ciphergoth 11:43, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

dialectics/logic

i thought that dialectics was the analysis and comparision of two different viewpoints (see the page on dialectics) whereas logic is the study of the rules of inference and the rules themselves. perhaps i am nitpicking, sorry.

Is this the singular form?

Is this the singular form of the word "trivia" in English? --131.215.220.112 00:29, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Apparently not - at least not in the sense of an inessential fact. However, trivia is the plural of trivium if you are talking about more than one of these colleges.

I checked www.dictionary.com, and they define trivium as "The lower division of the seven liberal arts in medieval schools, consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric."[1] Dictionary.com does note that the word "trivia" is the plural of "trivia" (meaning more than one of those lower divisions)[2]. However it does not say that trivium is a singular of trivia in the sense of "Insignificant or inessential matters; trifles." Neither does Webster's online.[3]

So, that leads me to believe that Trivium is not a singular noun for an insignificant or inessential matter.Johntex\^talk 04:23, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

This raises some interesting (to me) points. Some Latin words have different plurals in English with different meanings. Opera is the Latin plural for Opus, but I do not think many people use it in that way. Two plurals exist for antenna. The latin one if it's on a bug (biology) and antennas if it is on an electronic device. Technical editors of journals in biology or electronics would probably correct one to the other to fit their style sheet.

Media/medium seem to be used in different numbers.

Data is plural for datum, but is often used in English as a collective noun with a singular verb. Datum itself is seldom used except on maps. In that sense, it is used as a basis from which measurements are made. One map that shows both dry land and water may have two of them. In that case, I have heard cartographers say "two datums."

English borrows and makes use of words in different and wonderful ways.

Jim

Metal or metal? Hmm...

The word 'Metal' in the 'Metal band Trivium' disambiguation linked to the smooth, shiny stuff that you use to make robots and cutlery. I changed the link to heavy metal music, which is the thing that it was (presumably) referring to. Pax out.

metalcore, they're not metal as they're closer to hardocre than metal, I"m editing this