tri-, tre-

1. An office held by three men (triumvirs or triumviri) especially (in ancient Rome) one of several groups of joint magistrates chosen for various purposes, as for establishing colonies, revising the lists of knights, guarding against fires at night, etc.
2. One of three people sharing public administration or civil authority.

A three-footed stand or tripod; especially such a device, made of iron, for resting a hot cooking vessel to avoid marring a surface.

The Greek goddess Diana, so called because she had three faces; Luna in heaven; Diana on earth; and Hecate in hell.

As the Triple Goddess, she was known as the Lunar Virgin, Mother of Creatures, and the Huntress (Destroyer).

As Diana Egeria, patroness of childbirth, nursing, and healing, the Goddess made Nemi’s holy spring the Lourdes of pagan Rome. The legendary King Numa was said to have derived all his wisdom from a sacred marriage with her.

Trivia was a Roman goddess to whom sacrifices were offered where roads crossed. Since travelers would stop and talk, compare traveling experiences, and share thoughts; Trivia's name, meaning 'three roads coming together", is associated with the kind of information that was probably exchanged at those road crossings.

1. Of little significance or value.
2. Ordinary; commonplace.
3. Concerned with or involving nothing of importance..
4. Etymology: The adjective trivialis, which was derived from trivium, was literally rendered as "pertaining to a crossroads" and was used in Latin to mean "common" or "ordinary"; probably from the belief that things found at such a public place as a crossroads, where all the world may pass by, are generally common things.

The idea that people often stop where roads meet to pass the time of day with small talk may also have influenced the development of this sense. At any rate, trivial was recorded with the meaning most familiar to us, "of little importance or significance" and "commonplace".

The quality or condition of being trivial; something trivial; the condition or quality of having little importance or seriousness.

To reduce to triviality; devalued; to make insignificant; to treat something as, or make it appear, less important, significant, or valuable than it really is.

1. Insignificant or non-essential matters; trifles: Too often there are politicians who explain matters that consist more of trivia than of clarifying statements.
2. In the Middle Ages, there were three roads leading to learning and forming the lower division to the liberal arts: In school, James learned that trivium, or trivia, was used to describe the grammar, the rhetoric, and the logic of the Latin language.

The use of the plural form of trivia as a singular noun is usually considered to be acceptable.

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Having three generations or broods per year.

1. Occurring, published, or performed once every three weeks.
2. Occurring, published, or performed three times each week.

1. A reference to a parasite utilizing three host species during its life cycle.
2. A mixed culture of organisms, where one organism is associasted with three other species.