Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.
Class V. Words Releasing to the Voluntary PowersDivision (I) Individual Volition
Section II. Prospective Volition
2. Degree of Subservience
643. Unimportance.
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.
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.
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].
FOR AUGHT ONE CARES; it matters not, it does not signify; it is of no -consequence, – importance.
- Magno conatu magnas nugas.
- Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle.
- Elephantus non capit murem.
- Tempête dans un verre d’eau.
- Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye?—Bible
- Very trifles comfort, because very trifles grieve us.—Pascal
- Come, gentlemen, we sit too long on trifles.—Pericles
- These little things are great to little men.—Goldsmith
- Seeks painted trifles and fantastic toys, And eagerly pursues imaginary joys.—Akenside
- Trifles unconsciously bias us for or against a person from the very beginning.—Schopenhauer