The word for today is…
shard (noun) – 1. A broken piece or fragment, as of pottery or glass.
2. (Zoology) A tough scale or covering, such as the elytron of a beetle.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : Shard dates back to Old English (where it was spelled sceard), and it is related to the Old English word scieran, meaning “to cut.” English speakers have adopted the modernized shard spelling for most uses, but archeologists prefer to spell the word sherd when referring to the ancient fragments of pottery they unearth. Other specialized uses of the word shard include a sense referring to the thick front wings in beetles that protect a hind pair of wings and another sense used for the highly angular curved glass fragments of a type of volcanic rock formation.
