A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

trivial: levis,-e (adj.B), light in weight, not heavy (opp. gravis,-e adj.B); slight, trifling, small; unimportant, ordinary; trivial, petty; trivialis,-e (adj.B): commonplace, ordinary, found everywhere; see common;

- nomen triviale, specific epithet; nomina trivialia forte admitti possunt modo, quo in Pane suecico usus sum; constarent haec vocabulo unico, vocabulo libere undequaque desumpto; ratione haec praecipue evicti, quod differentia saepe longa evadit, ut non ubique commode usurpetur, et dein mutationi obnoxia, novis detectis speciebus, e.g. Pyrola irregularis, Pyrola Halleriana, Pyrola secunda, Pyrola umbellata, Pyrola uniflora (Linnaeus, Phil. bot. 202; (1751), trivial names may be admitted after a fashion, as I have used them in Pan suecicus; thay consist of a single word, a word freely taken from anywhere; the chief reason, which cannot be gainsaid, is that the differential character is often so long, that it cannot everywhere be conveniently used and is subject to change through new species being discovered, e.g. Pyrola irregularis, Pyrola Halleriana, Pyrola secunda, Pyrola umbellata, Pyrola uniflora (Stearn 1983).

- planta characteribus levibus et vix certis distincta (DeCandolle), a plant distinct by trivial characters and hardly proven.

- [BARTRAMIA HALLERIANA; moss] in memoriam BARTRAMI, coloni curiosi in Pensylvania, qui inde optimo Dillenio olim varias species cryptogamas LINN. procuravit, genericum nomen condidi; triviale vero indicio primi evulgatoris ipsius hujus speciei (Hedwig), I have based the generic name in memory of Bartram, an inquisitive colonist in Pensylvania, who once procured from there for the most honorable Dillenius various cryptogamic species of Linnaeus; [I have based] the trivial [name, i.e. the epithet] for a genuine memento of the first publisher himself of this species. [The Swiss Albrecht von Haller resisted the use of the binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus].

Nomen,-inis (s.n.III) triviale (adj.B), abl. sg. nomine triviali, the trivial name, “the common name of a plant, the adjective [in Latin], or more rarely, the second substantive [i.e. noun in apposition] appended to a generic name to connote a species” (Jackson).

- nomen triviale vix idoneum (C.Mueller), the trivial name [i.e. the epithet] is hardly appropriate.

Lactarius trivialis, a mushroom, as is Cortinarius trivialis. Rubus trivialis Michx. 'ordinary, common.'