I have a technical document that has some front matter, like table of contents, abstract, forward, acknowledgements, and then the body of the work, containing normative text specifications, and then back matter, like appendices, an index, a bibliography, and so on. Is there a word I can use that refers to the front and back matter but not the body?
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1Good question! (I guess 'the boring bits' isn't what you're after ;-) )– DanCommented Jan 21, 2016 at 21:54
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Because the elements in front matter and in back matter don't overlap and are broadly the consistent from book to book—the index never appears at the front of the book, for example, and nowadays the table of contents rarely appears in the back, the tendency in publishing is to refer to the sections separately (as "front matter" and "back matter") and not in combination (with a term like "not-main text"). From a practical perspective, any particular publishing issue is likely to involve one ("front matter is still incomplete") or the other ("back matter TK"), but not both.– Sven YargsCommented Jan 21, 2016 at 22:24
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@Sven, when I edit the book, the standards of inclusion for the body are different than in the front and back. The standards I use on the front and back are pretty much the same. I was hoping for a word that would save a little typing.– Skip SaillorsCommented Jan 21, 2016 at 23:09
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1 Answer
Update: I don't think there is a well-established single word that covers both the front matter and the back matter. It might be because there wasn't much need for that and they have different content. You might consider non-body matter as opposed to body matter.
On the other hand, I found some sources that offer terms like supporting elements, outside matter and external matter:
The front matter and the back matter together are also called 'supporting elements'.
Professional Communication By Koneru
It has been suggested that front matter and back matter collectively may be referred to as outside matter, alternatively - and perhaps better - called word list external matter.
The Bilingual LSP Dictionary: Principles and Practice for Legal Language
Technically, front matter and back matter are the correct terms in printing and book design. There is the term body matter for the body of the book also.
OED definition of front matter:
Printing (orig. U.S.) all matter (title-page, preface, table of contents, etc.) in a book that precedes the text; the prelims.
OED definition of back matter:
the supplementary material which follows the main text in a book, such as the index, bibliography, appendices
As a single word, front matter is called preliminaries ("prelims", for short) also. Another term for back matter is end matter.
In technical writing, front matter can be called introduction also.
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I am happy to refer to front matter when talking about an abstract and back matter when talking about an index. I am trying to avoid phrase like "front and back matter" or, worse, "front/back matter" when I want to discuss policies and quality standards that apply uniformly to front and back but do not apply to the body. For instance, I can say that the body represents normative text of the standard, but that the front/back is not normative. Commented Jan 21, 2016 at 22:55
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I'm not sure why you are trying to avoid the correct terms. I offered some alternative terms also.– ermanenCommented Jan 21, 2016 at 22:58
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Ok you changed the question a bit. I'm not sure if there is a term for the combination of front and back matter. Maybe you can say "non-body matter"....– ermanenCommented Jan 21, 2016 at 23:01