potsherd

Meaning

A piece of ceramic from pottery, often found on an archaeological site.

Synonyms

crock

shard

piece of broken crockery

fragment

container

sherd

tile

pot

flaw

flowerpot

Hyphenated as

pot‧sherd

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpɒt.ʃɜːd/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: pot-sherd

Inherited from Middle English: pot

Inherited from Old English: pot

Inherited from Middle English: sherd

Inherited from Old English: sceard

In summary

From Middle English pot-sherd, pot-schord, pot scherd, pot scarth, from Middle English pot, pote, potte (“a container, pot, vessel; especially an earthenware vessel”) (from late Old English pot, pott (“a pot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a type of vessel”)) + Middle English sherd (“piece of fired clay or broken earthenware; potsherd”) (from Old English sceard (“a shard, sherd”), from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“a nick, notch”)); equivalent to pot + sherd (“shard”).