fragments
c.16th centrury. A part broken off or otherwise detached from a whole; a broken piece; a (comparatively) small detached portion of anything. A detached, isolated, or incomplete part; a (comparatively) small portion of anything; a part remaining or still preserved when the whole is lost or destroyed. An extant portion of a writing or composition which as a whole is lost; also, a portion of a work left uncompleted by its author; hence, a part of any unfinished whole or uncompleted design.
“Where should he haue this Gold? It is some poore Fragment, some slender Ort of his remainder.”
Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (1623) iv. iii. 402
Applied to a person as a term of contempt.
“From whence fragment.”
Shakespeare, Troilus & Cressida, 1609 v. i. 8
“Go get you home you Fragments.”
Shakespeare, Coriolanus (1623) i. i. 221
