shard en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ˈʃɑɹd/ (Canada, US)
- [ˈʃɑːd] (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˈʃaɾd/ (Scotland)
- (US) audio
- [ˈʃɑɹd] (Canada, US)
- [ˈʃɐ̞ːd] (Australia, New-Zealand)
- /ˈʃɑːd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˈʃɐːd/ (Australia, New-Zealand)
Etymology
From Middle English shard, scherd, scheard, schord, from Old English sċeard (“a broken piece; shard”), from Proto-West Germanic *skard, from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“notch; nick”), from *skardaz (“damaged; nicked; scarred”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Akin to Scots schaird (“shard”), French écharde (“splinter”), Dutch schaarde (“tear; notch; fragment”), German Scharte (“notch”), Old Norse skarð (“notch, hack”) ( > Danish skår). The database sense is perhaps derived from the online gaming sense or from SHARD (System for Highly Available Replicated Data), name of a 1980s database product.
Meanings
-
A piece of broken glass or pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig.
You know there is something fascinating beyond that wall because someone's tried to stop you seeing over, and there are shards of glass embedded in the top.
2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 29:
-
(broadly) A piece of material, especially rock and similar materials, reminding of a broken piece of glass or pottery.
2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text Inside its exhibit hall, behind panes of glass, in a white-lit lab, a team of restorers works on an ancient Byzantine floor: 44 square yards of stone shards rescued from Lot’s Cave Monastery.
-
A food preparation similar in shape to a shard of, e.g., glass, generally made from a sheet of a hard product that is then shattered to produce smaller pieces.
A shard of chocolate adorns the dish.
- A tough scale, sheath, or shell; especially an elytron of a beetle.
-
(Internet) An instance of an MMORPG that is one of several independent and structurally identical virtual worlds, none of which has so many players as to exhaust a system's resources.
1997, Ultima Online. The term "shard" is related to the backstory of the game, in which the Gem of Immortality is shattered by the Stranger, the protagonist of Ultima I. "The planet was still bound to the jewel's magic, even as it lay shattered upon the floor of Mondain's castle. For, within each shattered remnant of the jewel, dwelled a perfect likeness of Sosaria. Thus is the world in which you are born, live, and die. Brittania, that was once Sosaria, now exists as a thousand worlds, each with its own peoples, history and destiny. This Brittania is but one of many in the multiverse that is... ...ULTIMA ONLINE." - Intro cinematic to the game, written by Michael Morlan https://web.archive.org/web/20080706122926/http://michael-morlan.net/pages/production/prod_uo.htm
- A component of a sharded distributed database.
- (in-plural, singular, slang) A piece of crystal methamphetamine.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| sherd | alternative | lexicographic | |
| shards | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
shardy · microshard · potsherd · shardlike
Synonyms
partition · potsherd · splinter
Translations (66)
la testa (piece of glass or pottery) · pl skorupa (piece of glass or pottery) · de Scherbe (piece of glass or pottery) · hu cserépdarab (piece of glass or pottery) · sl črepinja (piece of glass or pottery) · es tasquil (piece of rock or similar) · nn skar (piece of glass or pottery) · txb ṣat (piece of rock or similar) · he רְסִיס (piece of glass or pottery) · fa شکاله (piece of glass or pottery) · fi pirstale (piece of glass or pottery) · es casco (piece of glass or pottery) · mk откршок (piece of glass or pottery) · wa xhervea (piece of glass or pottery) · sv skärva (piece of glass or pottery) · mk срча (piece of glass or pottery) · gl cacheno (piece of glass or pottery) · af skerf (piece of glass or pottery) · fi siru (piece of rock or similar) · fi kuori (tough scale) · fa سفاله (piece of glass or pottery) · fi kilpi (tough scale) · pt estilhaço (piece of glass or pottery) · bg елитра (tough scale) · mi pāra (piece of glass or pottery) · gl lasca (piece of glass or pottery) · grc ὄστρακον (piece of glass or pottery) · tl bubog (piece of glass or pottery) · fi sirpale (piece of glass or pottery) · ru па́нцирь (tough scale) · mi kuru (piece of glass or pottery) · mk цреп (piece of glass or pottery) · bg чиреп (piece of glass or pottery) · ru черепо́к (piece of glass or pottery) · fi siru (piece of glass or pottery) · fi sirpale (piece of rock or similar) · dsb crjop (piece of glass or pottery) · pt caco (piece of glass or pottery) · txb ṣat (piece of glass or pottery) · es añicos (piece of glass or pottery) · wa testea (piece of glass or pottery) · nb skår (piece of glass or pottery) · pam catapa (piece of glass or pottery) · ca padellàs (piece of glass or pottery) · sh krhotina (piece of glass or pottery) · mi rutunga (piece of glass or pottery) · fi pirstale (piece of rock or similar) · es esquirla (piece of glass or pottery) · uk оско́лок (piece of glass or pottery) · ru оско́лок (piece of glass or pottery) · it frammento (piece of glass or pottery) · nl scherf (piece of glass or pottery) · sk črep (piece of glass or pottery) · pam katapa (piece of glass or pottery) · it coccio (piece of glass or pottery) · da skår (piece of glass or pottery) · fi peitinsiipi (elytron) (tough scale) · hu szilánk (piece of glass or pottery) · es tiesto (piece of glass or pottery) · izh luhka (piece of glass or pottery) · ar كِسْرَة (piece of glass or pottery) · ro ciob (piece of glass or pottery) · cs střep (piece of glass or pottery) · fr tesson (piece of glass or pottery) · fr éclat (piece of glass or pottery) · pl odłamek (piece of glass or pottery)