Shard
/ʃɑːrd/noun
A sharp piece broken off from a hard material, especially glass or pottery.
Did you know?English shard comes from an old Germanic word family tied to cutting and splitting, and its deeper relatives include words for shearing and even sharpness, making it a tiny fossil of violence in language.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sker-
“to cut, shear, or separate”
Old English
OE
sceard
“a fragment, a broken piece; also something cut off or divided”
Middle English
ME
shard
“a fragment or piece, especially of pottery or shell”
Modern English
English
shard
“a sharp piece broken off from a hard object, especially glass”