subs. (old colloquial).A trifle; a matter of little worth or consequence. As adj. = trumpery, trifling. [O.E.D.: Formerly quite naturalised; now scarcely so.]
1637. J. BASTWICK, The Litany, i. 17. All which they haue overthrowne with their BAGATELLE invention.
c. 1645. HOWELL, Familiar Letters, II. xxi. Your trifles and BAGATELLS are ill bestowed upon me, therfore heerafter I pray let me have of your best. Ibid. I rummagd all my stores, and searchd my cells, Wher nought appeard, God wot, but BAGATELLS.
1658. J. ROBINSON, Eudoxa, i. 4. Every particular thing even unto the smallest BAGATELLOS.
1659. GAUDEN, The Tears of the Church, 102. To please themselves with toyes and BAGATELLOES.
1679. BEHN, The Feignd Curtezans, ii. 1. Ah BAGGATELLES, Seignior, BAGGATELLES.
c. 1733. R. NORTH, Examen, II. v. 100. He makes a mere BAGATEL of it.
1786. JEFFERSON, Writings (1859), I. 566. As to the satisfaction for slaves carried off, it is a BAGATELLE.
1872. SIR S. W. BAKER, The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, iv. 53. The bonâ fide tax is a BAGATELLE to the amounts squeezed from him by the extortionate soldiery.