potsherd arch. exc. in Archaeol.
(ˈpɒt-ʃɜːd)
Forms: 4 pot-schoord (?), potszherd, 6 potsharde, -sherde, -shearde, (pottsheard), 6–8 potsheard, -shard (also 9 dial.), (7 pottsherd), 7– potsherd; 6–7 (9 dial.) potshare. β. north. dial. 4 pot scarth, 9 potscar, -sker.
[f. pot n.1 + sherd, shard, OE. sceard, fragment, ON. skarð, Da. skaar (whence the northern β-forms).]
A fragment of a broken earthenware pot; a broken piece of earthenware.
| c 1325 Gloss W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 171 Va quere breses [gloss imbrers] en une teske [gloss a pot-schoord (v.r. szherd)]. a 1518 Skelton Magnyf. 2124 A laudable Largesse, I tell you, for a lorde, To prate for the patchynge of a pot sharde! 1535 Coverdale Job ii. 8 Iob..scraped of the etter off his sores with a potsherde. 1596 Spenser F.Q. vi. i. 37 They hew'd their helmes, and plates asunder brake, As they had potshares bene. 1611 Bible Isa. xlv. 9 Let the potsheard striue with the potsheards of the earth. 1639 G. Daniel Ecclus. xxii. 20 He that would teach the foole, his labour's lost As he that glews a pottsherd, broke to dust. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Orange Tree, Lay some Oister-Shells or Pot-shards at the Bottom of his Tubs, that the Water may the sooner drain away. 1857 Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) I. 64 Inscriptions were often written upon potsherds or trapezoidal fragments of vases. |
| β a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxi. 15 My vertu..dried, that is, wex vile as a pot scarth, that men settis noght by. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pot-scar, Pot-shard, a potsherd. 1868 Atkinson Cleveland Gloss., Potsker, a potsherd. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Potscar, Pot-share, a potsherd. |
b. attrib. (in
quot., in allusion to
Isa. xlv. 9).
| a 1680 Charnock Attrib. God (1834) II. 124 His almightiness is above..our potsherd strength, as his infiniteness is above..our purblind understandings. |