shard

A shard is a fragment produced when a brittle material breaks apart. The term is most often used for glass, but it also applies to fragments of pottery or mirror. Shards are usually sharp and irregular and can pose cut hazards; in archaeology, they can reveal information about past production and use.

Etymology: Shard derives from Old English sceard, meaning a cut or piece, via Middle English. The words shard and sherd are sometimes used interchangeably, though many sources reserve shard for glass fragments and sherd for ceramic pieces.

Archaeology: Ceramic fragments are commonly called sherds, while glass and other brittle fragments are referred to as shards. The study of sherd assemblages helps researchers infer technology, trade, and daily life in past communities.

Computing: Sharding is a database partitioning technique that splits data across multiple servers. Each shard holds a subset of the data, and together they form the complete dataset. Sharding improves scalability and throughput but adds complexity for queries and transactions; common approaches include hashing, range, and directory-based schemes.

In fiction, shards are often depicted as magical fragments with power. The general sense remains that a shard is a piece of a larger object.