Etymology

Noun

1. A piece of broken glass or pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig.
2. A piece of material, especially rock and similar materials, reminding of a broken piece of glass or pottery.
3. A tough scale, sheath, or shell; especially an elytron of a beetle.
4. An instance of an MMORPG that is one of several independent and structurally identical virtual worlds, none of which has so many players as to exhaust a system's resources.

Verb

1. To fall apart into shards, usually as the result of impact or explosion.
2. To break (something) into shards.
3. To divide (an MMORPG) into several shards, or to establish a shard of one.