bagatelle

C2+ Topic:Sports & Fitness

US /ˌbæɡəˈtɛl/ UK /ˌbæɡəˈtɛl/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a trifle, or a short light piece of music or a tabletop ball game

The cost was a mere bagatelle to a man of his fortune.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a trifle, or a short light... trifle triviality nothing bauble gewgaw

Opposites

essential necessity

Etymology

From French bagatelle ('a trifle'), from Italian bagatella ('a trifle, conjuring trick'), perhaps a diminutive of baga ('baggage') or from Latin baca ('berry').

bagatelle French bagatella Italian

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Sports & Fitness

External links

# bagatelle

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˌbæɡəˈtɛl/
**IPA (UK):** /ˌbæɡəˈtɛl/

## Meanings
1. a trifle, or a short light piece of music or a tabletop ball game

## Examples
- The cost was a mere bagatelle to a man of his fortune.

## Synonyms
- trifle
- triviality
- nothing
- bauble
- gewgaw

## Antonyms
- essential
- necessity

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: bagatelle
- Root: bagatella

## Etymology
From French bagatelle ('a trifle'), from Italian bagatella ('a trifle, conjuring trick'), perhaps a diminutive of baga ('baggage') or from Latin baca ('berry').

## AI Etymology
bagatelle comes from French bagatelle ('a trifle'), from Italian bagatella ('a trifle, conjuring trick'), perhaps a diminutive of baga ('baggage') or from Latin baca ('berry'). The explanation preserves that uncertainty: the proposed comparisons illuminate the form, but they do not turn the word into a securely traced inheritance or borrowing. In modern use, the noun sense is "a trifle, or a short light piece of music or a tabletop ball game", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. Its nearest semantic neighbors include trifle, triviality, nothing, bauble, but the etymology gives the word its own historical profile within that field. The principal historical forms in the chain include French bagatelle, Italian bagatella, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Sports & Fitness

markdown