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'''Trivia''' (singular: ''trivium'') are unimportant (or "trivial") items, especially of information. 

In the late 20th century the expression came to apply more to information of the kind useful almost exclusively for answering quiz questions: a perfect "trivia question" is one that initially stumps the listener, but the answer subsequently sounds familiar once revealed (otherwise the question would be considered either too familiar and therefore not trivia, or so unfamiliar and obscure as to be unanswerable and not as entertaining).
==Etymology==
The [[etymology]] of the word ''trivia'' seems to start with [[Latin]] ''tri-'' = "three", and ''via'' = "way", "road", thus ''trivium'', which has been treated in three ways:

*''Where three roads meet'', especially as a place of public resort. The Latin adjective ''triviālis'', derived from ''trivium'', thus meant "appropriate to the street corner, commonplace, vulgar." The first known usage of the word "trivial" in [[Modern English]] is from 1589; it was used with a sense identical to that of ''triviālis''. Shortly after that ''trivial'' is recorded in the sense most familiar to us: "of little importance or significance." Gradually, the word ''trivia'' came to be used in English for what in Latin would have called "''triviālia''", for anything information or concern which is treated as everyday and unimportant.
*''The Three Ways'' (first known used in English in a work from 1432–1450). This work mentions the "''arte trivialle''", referring to the ''trivium'', which was the three ''[[Liberal arts|Artes Liberales]]'' ([[Liberal arts|Liberal Arts]]) that were taught first in [[middle Ages|medieval]] [[university|universities]], namely [[grammar]], [[rhetoric]], and [[logic]]. (The other four Liberal Arts were the ''[[quadrivium]]'', namely [[arithmetic]], [[geometry]], [[music]], and [[astronomy]], which were more challenging.) Hence, ''trivial'' in this sense would have meant "of interest only to an undergraduate".
* The Roman courier network [[Cursus publicus]] which was set up by Emperor [[Augustus]]. Messengers traveled the Roman Empire taking messages from one province to the next. At crossroads notice boards would display gossip or news from Rome....hence 'trivia'. 

The word trivia was popularized in its current meaning in the 1960s by [[Columbia University]] students Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky, who created the earliest inter-collegiate quiz bowls that tested culturally significant yet ultimately unimportant facts, which they dubbed "trivia contests". The first book treating trivia of this universal sort was ''Trivia'' (Dell, 1966) by Goodgold and Carlinsky, which achieved a ranking on the New York Times best seller list; the book was an extension of the pair's Columbia contests and was followed by other Goodgold and Carlinsky trivia titles. In their second book, ''More Trivial Trivia'', the authors criticized practitioners who were "indiscriminate enough to confuse the flower of Trivia with the weed of minutiae"; Trivia, they wrote, "is concerned with tugging at heartstrings," while minutiae deals with such unevocative questions as "Which state is the largest consumer of Jell-O?" But over the years the word has come to refer to obscure and arcane bits of dry knowledge as well as nostalgic remembrances of pop culture.

==Quiz shows==
In the 1960s, nostalgic college students and others began to informally trade questions and answers about the popular culture of their youth. The first known documented labeling of this casual parlor game as "Trivia" was in a [[Columbia Daily Spectator]] column published on February&nbsp;5, 1965. A stage contest held in Columbia's Ferris Booth Hall on March&nbsp;1 of that year, reported in campus press and the New York Post, was the first occasion in which the pastime was formalized. On {{nowrap|[[September 13|September 13]]}}, [[1965]], four Columbia students appeared on the TV quiz show ''[[I've Got a Secret]]'' and competed in a trivia contest with  the show's regular panelists. A much-publicized First Annual Ivy League-Seven Sisters Trivia Contest was held at Columbia the same semester. By 1966, other campuses had instituted Trivia bowls while colleges such as [[Lawrence University]] and [[Williams College]] began radio contests which continue to this day. In this manner, the codified form of the diversion became an institution.

In 1974, a former [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] [[air traffic controller]] named Fred L. Worth published ''The Trivia Encyclopedia'', which he followed in 1977 with ''The Complete Unabridged Super Trivia Encyclopedia'', and in 1981 with ''Super Trivia, vol. II''. The popularity of books by Goodgold and Carlinsky, Worth and others in the 1960s and 1970s laid the groundwork for the first edition of the board game [[Trivial Pursuit]] in the early 1980s.

The enormous success of this game led to the re-launch of ''[[Jeopardy!]]'' in the United States, reviving a quiz show genre that had been dormant since the [[quiz show scandals]] of the 1950s. The American TV broadcaster [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] had a surprise hit with ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]'', an import of a successful British quiz format which launched another wave of interest in trivia. In both the UK and Canada, the quiz format has enjoyed continuous success since the 1950s, untouched by the scandals that dogged the American format.

In addition to the mass media trivia, there have also been two entrenched trivia subcultures. One is the [[pub quiz]] phenomenon, which is especially prevalent in Great Britain and in select U.S. cities, particularly in pubs that serve a large [[Irish American]] community. (The U.S. pub quiz scene is crimped by the popularity of [[NTN Buzztime|Buzztime]], a satellite-based game.)

''[[Wilson Casey]]'' is an American columnist, book author, entertainer, speaker, and record holder. He earned two Guinness World Records (trivia marathon and radio broadcasting) for a thirty-hour live, continuous broadcast on radio station WKDY-AM on January 9 - 10, 1999 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. During the 30 hours he asked and identified the correct answer to 3,333 questions. Casey is regularly called and labeled "The Trivia Guy".

==Quiz bowls==
The other subculture is the [[quizbowl]] format found in high schools and universities in the U.S., as well as in elementary, middle, and junior high schools; the Canadian equivalent is competition geared toward [[Reach for the Top]], among high schools, whereas Canadian universities are beginning to participate in U.S. quiz bowl leagues.

The largest current trivia contest<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.triviahalloffame.com/wwsp.htm|title=Trivia World|publisher=Triviahalloffame.com|accessdate=2008-12-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Ken|last=Jennings|url=http://www.ken-jennings.com/excerpt3.html|title=Chapter 13: What is Tradition?|work=Brainiac|accessdate=2008-12-23}}</ref> is held in [[Stevens Point, Wisconsin]], at the [[University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point]]'s [[college]] radio station [[WWSP|WWSP 89.9 FM]]. This is a college station with 11,500 watts of power and about a 65&nbsp;mile (105&nbsp;km) radius, and the contest serves as a fund raiser for the station. The contest is open to anyone, and it is played in April of each year spanning 54 hours over a weekend with eight questions each hour. There are usually 500 teams ranging from 1 to 50 players. The top ten teams are awarded trophies. The 40th WWSP contest was held in April 2009.

The two longest continuous trivia contests in the world are those at Lawrence University and Williams College, which both debuted in the spring of 1966. Lawrence hosts its contest annually, and its 43rd installment was held in January 2008. Unusually, Williams has a separate contest for each semester, and thus its 84th game took place in May 2008.

The [[University of Colorado system|University of Colorado]] ''Trivia Bowl'' was a mostly student contest featuring a single-elimination tournament based on the GE [[College Bowl]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cualum.org/heritage/alumni_lng/traditions.html#trivia|title=University of Colorado Heritage Center|publisher=Cualum.org|accessdate=2008-12-23}}</ref> Many of the best trivia players in America trace participation through this tournament including many ''Jeopardy!'' and ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' contestants.

==See also==
{{multicol}}
*[[Factoid]]
*[[Pub quiz]]
*[[:Category:Trivia books|Trivia books]]
*[[Trivial (mathematics)]]
{{multicol-end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Resources==
*[[FunTrivia]]
*English Heritage Dictionaries (2000). ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (4th ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-82517-2.

==External links==
<!-- JH: External links are being reviewed on the Discussion page ("Talk:Trivia") at present. Please join in that discussion before adding new links here, particularly if you are promoting your own site.-->
{{wiktionary|trivia}}
*{{dmoz|Games/Video_Games/Recreation/Trivia/Browser_Based|''Web Trivia''}} - Trivia Games on the Web
*{{dmoz|Recreation/Humor/Useless_Pages/Trivia|''Trivia''}} – Humor and "Useless Fact" Pages

[[Category:Trivia|*]]
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