trivial name

trivial name (plural trivial names)

1. (chemistry) A commonly used, non-systematic name of a chemical compound. Trivial names for many compounds have been in use since long before their exact chemical structures were determined.

   "Carbolic acid", "isopropyl alcohol", and "nitroglycerine" are trivial names for specific organic compounds that have formal systematic names defined by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. "Saltpetre" or "nitre" are trivial names for the inorganic compounds: sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate. In informal contexts, systematic names sometimes appear as trivial names; eg "alcohol", which is the correct generic term for any organic chemical compound in which a hydroxyl functional group is bound to a saturated carbon atom, is a common trivial name for "ethanol".

2. A non-systematic name for a chemical element (see systematic element name).

   Trivial names for elements, such as "heavy metals", "noble metals", and "rare-earth elements" are terms of convenience, and either do not occur as such in the periodic table or do not form strict, coherent groups in the table. "Iron" is an arguable example, its name not matching the symbol "Fe" for "ferrum".

3. (biology) A commonly used, non-systematic name for an organism.

   Trivial names such as "worm", "shrimp", "fish", "toad", "cobra", "vulture", and "mahogany", though convenient and popular, do not refer to any systematically-defined biological groupings of organisms.

4. (taxonomy) A specific epithet.

• almain-rivet