potsherd

noun
/ˈpɒt.ʃɜːd/UK/ˈpɑt.ʃəɹd/US

Etymology

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”).

  1. inherited from *skardą
  2. inherited from sceard
  3. inherited from sherd
  4. derived from *budn-
  5. inherited from pot
  6. inherited from pot
  7. inherited from pot-sherd

Definitions

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

    • But this madde Amalecke, / Lyke to a Mamelek, / He regardeth lordes / No more than potshordes; […]
    • Job took a potſherd to ſcrape himself, becauſe his hands were as full of boils as his body: This is the caſe of thy corrupt ſoul: not to be recovered but by Jeſus Chriſ, whoſe ſtrength was dried up like a potſherd, Pſal[ms] xxii. 15.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for potsherd. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA