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I have a set of objects, an example would be this set of letters.

{A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I}

I need to call each part (or group of parts) with short single words. Letter "A" is the Head; "I" is the Tail; Both Head and Tail are called Ends. each element is called a Segment.

So my question is, what do we call the middle segments B through H, in a short single word?

  • It can't be 'Middle/Center' because it could only refer to E.
  • It can't be 'Segment' because it includes the Head and Tail.
  • Basically the word needs to mean (w/o ambiguity) the segments not including the Head & Tail.
  • Doesn't need to be formal, like what I did w/ Head/Tail, which could've been just Start/End or First/Last.

Ironically, it's my homework on programming and naming function/methods, but this is more on language so I decided to post it here. Thank you in advance.

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  • Naming functions/methods is expressly off-topic here. Presicely because as far as the language is concerned, you can name them anything at all, and what is best is in the eye of the beholder. – RegDwigнt♦ Jan 31 '14 at 22:30
  • Median would be problematic, but middle should be fine. – Bradd Szonye Jan 31 '14 at 22:34
  • @RegDwigĐ˝t: I agree, but our instructor is pushing for simplistic naming conventions, which is really neat in my opionion. But then again, posting this at StackOverflow, is a bit off-topic too since the focus is finding a word. Anyway, thanks for the heads-up, I'll keep that in mind in my future questions. :') – A. K. Tolentino Jan 31 '14 at 22:44
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Some higher maths distinguish elements along edges from others by calling the edge points boundaries, the outer ones exterior, and the inner ones interior. (In this case, one might say: A and I are boundaries; B through H are interior; and J to Z is exterior.) Abbreviating these may breach good form in some programming languages: ints is too much like int for integer; intern (or internal) may be too close to C's extern; etc.

It's a little grotesque, but innards continues in the tradition of head and tail. TFD yields as one definition

The inner parts, as of a machine.

but I think its other definition of entrails comes more readily to mind, particularly if it's used with head and tail.

If the set {A-I} has the name X, I recommend these less-technical terms, where the first is for head/tail and the second is for the rest:

  • X_outer; X_inner
  • X_ends; X_mids
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    Cool, really appreciate explaining the Math and Cases in a technical way. Thank you, I've chosen "Innards" because Head & Tail reminds me of a Snake. I'll credit you and this answer in my source code. Appreciated it, Mr. Dingo. – A. K. Tolentino Feb 1 '14 at 16:52
  • here's a reference, sorta - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interior_(topology) – Phil Sweet Feb 20 '19 at 22:38
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intermediates? or links, middle elements, middle parts

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"Body" would probably be the best analogy to go with Head or Tail. You will have to decide what happens in the degenerate cases where the set is totally empty, has one, two or exactly three members, as one or more of these will be empty.

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  • The snag is that body is an overworked word already, and pressing it into this usage could lead to confusion. Perhaps 'thorax' would be less potentially ambiguous (if rather weirder-sounding). – Edwin Ashworth Jan 31 '14 at 23:35
  • And Head and Tail are not? So if the entire thing is a Clump, then Clump_Head() returns the head, Clump_Body() returns a clump with the Body elements in it, and so on. – Oldcat Jan 31 '14 at 23:39
  • 'Body' already has a sense in matrix terminology. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 31 '14 at 23:48
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Consider torso, which per en.wiktionary means “The part of the (human) body from the neck to the groin, that is, the body excluding the head and limbs”. In this case, it would be less ambiguous with a word for that part of the body from the neck to the ankles, but to most English speakers I think torso will connote clipping off end elements.

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