shard

shard¹ fragment

Etymology

The word for a fragment is inherited from Middle English sherd, also shard and scherde,^[2][3][1] inherited from Old English sceard (“gap, notch; potsherd”),^[4][5][6][7] a noun use of an adjective of the same form meaning "cut, notched".^[6][3][7] It goes back to Proto-Germanic *skardaz (“cut, notched, diminished”),^[4][6][8] a past-participle formation on the variant *skar- of the root of sceran (“to cut”), the ancestor of shear,^[3][6][9] from Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to cut”).^[4] Kroonen instead assigns the adjective to a European root *skerdʰ-, comparing Old Irish scerdaid (“to peel, scrape off”) and Lithuanian skeřsti (“to butcher”).^[10] Cognates are Old Frisian skerd (“cut, notch”), Middle Low German skart (“crack, chink”), Middle Dutch scarde, Dutch schaard, German Scharte (“notch, gap”) and Old Norse skarð (“notch, gap”).^[3][6][11] The Germanic word gave French écharde (“prickle, splinter”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A gap in an enclosure is recorded before 1000, and a fragment of broken earthenware about 1000;^[12][3] Bosworth–Toller gives both senses.^[7] Barnhart finds the surname Sharde in 1275, and the common noun as scherde about 1300,^[3] in a legend of the child Jesus's broken pitcher.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline sees the sense "fragment of broken earthenware" developing in late Old English from "incision, gap".^[4] In Middle English the word could also name an earthenware pot or vessel,^[2] and in 1390 Gower used it once for a dragon's scale.^[12][13][14] From 1561 it was applied to fragments of other materials,^[12][14] and figuratively from 1579.^[12] Johnson (1755) defined the word as a fragment of an earthen vessel, quoting Hamlet: Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her.^[15] The "gap" sense survived in dialect: a shard was a gap in a hedge or wall in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and other counties, and in Exmoor the verb meant to notch a tool.^[16][17] The Scots use it for a worn or decayed remnant, from the 1780s.^[12][14] In archaeology sherd is now the usual form for a piece of pottery found on a site.^[18][12] Wiktionary also records a verb in online gaming, to divide a game world into several shards.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1000 – a gap in a hedge or bank.^[12]
• c. 1000 – a fragment of broken earthenware.^[12][3]
• c. 1300 – Middle English scherde.^[3][2]
• 1390 – the scale of a dragon, in Gower.^[12][13]
• 1561 – a fragment of other material.^[12][14]
• 1579 – figurative use.^[12]
• 1582 – verb, to break into fragments.^[17]
• 1785 – in Scots, a worn remnant.^[12]
• 1787 – in dialect, a notch in the blade of a tool.^[12][14]
• 1891 – verb, of a tree, to shed its bark in pieces.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sharp broken piece of a brittle material such as glass, pottery, metal or rock; a fragment: A shard of the broken mirror cut her hand.^{[19][20][5][18]}
2. (archaeology) A piece of broken pottery found on a site, usually in the form sherd.^[18][12][1]
3. A small remaining piece; a remnant.^[18][12]
4. (dialect) A gap in a hedge or wall.^[16][12][11]

Verb

1. To break something into fragments, or to break into fragments.^[17][18][11]
2. Of a tree, to shed its bark in pieces.^[17][18]

Word family

• potsherd

shard² cow dung; wing case

Etymology

The word for cow dung is probably from English an alteration of sharn, influenced by the word for a fragment, according to Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Shorter Oxford;^[18][11] the OED calls it of uncertain origin and apparently cognate with that word.^[17] Weekley links it to Old English scearn (“dung”).^[21] The OED treats the beetle's wing case as a further word, which evolved from a misunderstanding of Shakespeare's shard-born.^[17] Weekley also calls it a ghost word, explaining the “shardborn beetle” of “Macbeth” as one born in dung,^[21] and the Shorter Oxford notes that the interpretation of Shakespeare's uses is disputed.^[11] The American Heritage Dictionary, Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged, however, list the wing case under shard "fragment".^[20][19][18]

Earliest recorded meaning

A patch of cow dung: 1542, in T. Elyot's Bibliotheca.^[17][14] The 1989 edition of the OED had 1545.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word remained mostly rural: the Shorter Oxford calls it archaic and dialectal,^[11] and Wright records it in Caithness, Yorkshire and Wiltshire around 1900.^[16] The compound cow-shard has the same meaning.^[17][16] The wing-case sense was first recorded in 1811, in a list of West Riding of Yorkshire words,^[17][14] though the 1989 edition of the OED had 1755,^[12] and Bosworth–Toller took Shakespeare's shard in that sense, following Nares.^[7] Shard-beetle is an old name for a dor-beetle, recorded from 1854.^[12][11]

Timeline

• 1542 – a patch of cow dung.^[17][14]
• 1811 – the wing case of a beetle.^[17][14]
• 1854 – shard-beetle, a dor-beetle.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dialect) A patch of cow dung.^{[18][17][11][16]}
2. (zoology) The hard elytron or wing case of a beetle; also a tough scale or shell.^{[20][19][18][17]}

Word family

• cow-shard
• shard-born