释义 |
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.
c1325Gloss W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 171 Va quere breses [gloss imbrers] en une teske [gloss a pot-schoord (v.r. szherd)]. a1518Skelton Magnyf. 2124 A laudable Largesse, I tell you, for a lorde, To prate for the patchynge of a pot sharde! 1535Coverdale Job ii. 8 Iob..scraped of the etter off his sores with a potsherde. 1596Spenser F.Q. vi. i. 37 They hew'd their helmes, and plates asunder brake, As they had potshares bene. 1611Bible Isa. xlv. 9 Let the potsheard striue with the potsheards of the earth. 1639G. Daniel Ecclus. xxii. 20 He that would teach the foole, his labour's lost As he that glews a pottsherd, broke to dust. 1725Bradley 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. 1857Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) I. 64 Inscriptions were often written upon potsherds or trapezoidal fragments of vases. βa1340Hampole Psalter xxi. 15 My vertu..dried, that is, wex vile as a pot scarth, that men settis noght by. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pot-scar, Pot-shard, a potsherd. 1868Atkinson Cleveland Gloss., Potsker, a potsherd. 1869Lonsdale Gloss., Potscar, Pot-share, a potsherd. b. attrib. (in quot., in allusion to Isa. xlv. 9).
a1680Charnock Attrib. God (1834) II. 124 His almightiness is above..our potsherd strength, as his infiniteness is above..our purblind understandings. |