smithereens
Fragments or splintered pieces; numerous tiny disconnected items.
informal
The urn shattered into smithereens the moment it hit the ground.
Where it comes from
Uncertain. The following words, all first attested later than the headword, have been compared: * Irish smidiríní, smiodairíní (“smithereens”), from smiodar (“broken piece, fragment”) + -ín (suffix forming diminutive nouns) + -í (slender form of -aí (suffix forming plurals of some nouns)). * smither (“fragment; atom”), which would be suffixed with -een (forming diminutive nouns in Irish English). * Hiberno-English (Wexford) smaddereen, a variant of smattering (“small amount or number of something; shallow or superficial knowledge of a subject”). * Hiberno-English (Wexford) smithered, smashed
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry smithereens (CC BY-SA 4.0).