破片
はへん · hahen · JLPT N2 · noun
fragment
🪨 破 (break) + 片 (piece) = a piece broken off from a whole
はへん: 破 (ha, to break or tear) plus 片 (hen, a piece or side). Together they name any piece that has broken away from something whole.
破 — stone 石 + skin/hide 皮
破 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 石 (stone) gives the meaning 'to break, smash,' since stones were used to crack things, while 皮 (pí) supplies the sound. The original sense of breaking stone broadened to mean 'broken,' 'damaged,' or 'to defeat.'
片 — right half of 木 (tree split vertically)
Pictograph showing the right half of a tree 木 split down the middle, depicting a thin slice or slab of wood. From this came the meanings 'slice,' 'flat thin piece,' and by extension 'sheet' or 'card.' Its mirror image 爿 represents the left half.