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Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class V. Words Releasing to the Voluntary Powers
Division (I) Individual Volition
Section II. Prospective Volition
2. Degree of Subservience

643. Unimportance.

   NOUN:UNIMPORTANCE, insignificance, nothingness, immateriality.
  TRIVIALITY, levity, frivolity, fribble; paltriness &c. adj.; poverty; smallness [See Smallness]; vanity (uselessness) [See Inutility]; matter of indifference [See Indifference]; no object.
  NOTHING, – to signify, – worth speaking of, – particular, – to boast of, – to speak of; small -, no great -, trifling &c. adj.– matter; mere joke, mere nothing; hardly -, scarcely- anything; nonentity, small beer, cipher; no great shakes [colloq.], peu de chose [F.]; child’s play.
  TOY, plaything, popgun, paper pellet, gimcrack, gewgaw, bauble, trinket, bagatelle, kickshaw, knickknack, whimwham, trifle, “trifles light as air” [Othello].
  TRUMPERY, trash, rubbish, stuff, fatras [F.], frippery; “leather or prunello” [Pope]; fiddle-faddle [colloq.], fingle-fangle; chaff, drug, froth, bubble, smoke, cobweb; weed; refuse (inutility) [See Inutility]; scum (dirt) [See Uncleanness].
  JOKE, jest, snap of the fingers, snap of one’s thumb; fudge (unmeaning) [See Unmeaningness]; fiddlestick, pack of nonsense, mere farce.
  TRIFLE, straw, pin, fig, fico [archaic], button, rush; bulrush, feather, halfpenny, farthing, brass farthing, doit, peppercorn, iota, tinker’s dam (or damn), continental [U. S.], jot, mote, rap, pinch of snuff, old song; cent, mill, picayune [colloq.]; pai, pice [both India]; pistareen, red cent [U. S.].
  nine days’ wonder, ridiculus mus [L.]; flash in the pan (impotence) [See Impotence]; much ado about nothing (overestimation) [See Overestimation]; tempest -, storm- in a teapot.
  MINUTIÆ, details, minor details, small fry; dust in the balance, feather in the scale, drop in the ocean, fleabite, pin prick, molehill.
   VERB:BE UNIMPORTANT &c. adj.; not matter [See Importance]; go for -, matter -, signify- -little, – nothing, – little or nothing; not matter a straw &c. n.
  make light of (underestimate) [See Underestimation]; catch at straws (overestimate) [See Overestimation]; tumble -, stumble- over one’s shadow; make mountains out of molehills, make much ado about nothing.
   ADJECTIVE:UNIMPORTANT; of -little, – small, – no- -account, – importance [See Importance]; immaterial; nonessential, unessential, irrelevant, not vital, uninteresting; indifferent, amateurish.
  SUBORDINATE (inferior) [See Inferiority]; mediocre (average) [See Mean]; passable, fair, respectable, tolerable, commonplace; uneventful, mere, common; ordinary (habitual) [See Habit]; inconsiderable, soso or so-so, insignificant, nugatory, inappreciable.
  TRIFLING, trivial; slight, slender, light, flimsy, frothy, idle; puerile &c. (fool-ish) [See Imbecility; Folly]; airy, shallow; weak [See Weakness]; powerless [See Impotence]; frivolous, petty, niggling; peddling, piddling, fribbling, fribble, inane, ridiculous, farcical; finical, finicking or finicky or finikin, mincing, fiddle-faddle [colloq.], namby-pamby, wishy-washy [colloq.], milk and water, insipid.
  PALTRY, poor, pitiful; contemptible (contempt) [See Contempt]; sorry, mean, meager or meagre, shabby, miserable, wretched, vile, scrubby, scrannel [archaic], weedy, niggardly, scurvy, beggarly, worthless, twopenny-halfpenny, two-for-a-cent, two-by-four [colloq., U. S.], cheap, trashy, catchpenny, gimcrack, trumpery; one-horse [U. S.].
  not worth -the pains, – while, – mentioning, – speaking of, – a thought, – a curse, – a cent, – a rap, – a hair, – a straw &c. n.; beneath contempt, below par; not up to -sample, – specification; beneath-, unworthy of- -notice, – regard – consideration; de lanâ caprinâ [L.]; vain (useless) [See Inutility].
   ADVERB:SLIGHTLY &c. adj.; rather, somewhat, pretty well, fairly, fairly well, tolerably.
  FOR AUGHT ONE CARES; it matters not, it does not signify; it is of no -consequence, – importance.
   INTERJECTION:NO MATTER! pish! tush! tut! pshaw! pugh! pooh, -pooh! fudge! bosh! humbug! fiddlestick, – end! fiddledeedee! never mind! n’importe! [F.]; what signifies! what matter! what boots it! what of that! what’s the odds! a fig for! stuff! nonsense! stuff and nonsense!    QUOTATIONS:
  1. Magno conatu magnas nugas.
  2. Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle.
  3. Elephantus non capit murem.
  4. Tempête dans un verre d’eau.
  5. Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye?—Bible
  6. Very trifles comfort, because very trifles grieve us.—Pascal
  7. Come, gentlemen, we sit too long on trifles.—Pericles
  8. These little things are great to little men.—Goldsmith
  9. Seeks painted trifles and fantastic toys, And eagerly pursues imaginary joys.—Akenside
  10. Trifles unconsciously bias us for or against a person from the very beginning.—Schopenhauer