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I have a program that does a job on batches of 100 items. It's too slow on its own, so I'm going to write a program that runs multiple copies of that program, giving each one a batch of 500 batches, so 50000 items in each batch-of-batches.

I'd like a single word for the batches of batches. I'm not looking for just any old synonym of "batch", but for a word which includes the sense of being batched at a higher level - though if such a word doesn't exist for "batch" and does exist for a synonym, I'd be happy with the pair.

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  • Perhaps ream and quire ? Or ton and hundredweight ? Commented Aug 29, 2019 at 14:23
  • meta-batch like language and meta-language.
    – Lambie
    Commented Aug 29, 2019 at 14:44
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    Normally words like 'hyper' or 'super' or 'meta' would be used as prefixes in this context. 'Hyper-batch', 'Super-batch', 'Meta-batch'.
    – Anchor
    Commented Aug 29, 2019 at 17:43

2 Answers 2

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Although the question doesn’t make it clear whether the poster wishes a name to use in his code (which would be off-topic, and depend on the names already taken for data structures in the programming language) or to use in user instructions or documentation, I will make a linguistic suggestion based on a precedent where there is a vowel change.

If Bytes are lots of Bits, then:

A Bitch might be a suitable word for lots of Batches

(Or unsuitable, but that’s life, as they say.)

This would also have the advantage of allowing a further level of complexity by another vowel change:

A Butch could be used for lots of Bitches

Footnote

“Lots of” may be regarded by non-informaticians as poor style, but in programming almost every word you can think of for a collection of objects (that too) already has a specific meaning. However this suggests an alternative approach, using the simple vernacular, rather than Latin or Greek, to form a prefix:

lota might be a suitable general-purpose prefix, e.g. a lota-batch

And then:

for a further level of complexity one could use wota, e.g. a wota-lota-batch

However an internet search suggests that in some parts of the world there might be cultural resistance to lota.

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  • I would say "gaggle" -- a little less off-color.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Sep 28, 2019 at 20:13
  • @HotLicks — If you wish a gender-neutered alternative, I’ve a different one in mind, which I’ll add later. Also, a higher level variant of the current offering using another vowel change.
    – David
    Commented Sep 28, 2019 at 20:52
  • It's all Greek to me. Are you joking or serious?
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 29, 2019 at 14:33
  • @Lambie — you’re confusing lota with iota. It’s a serious joke. Choosing programming class names is important, because the name should indicate the function but not the implementation (list, array, stack etc). And as I mentioned, all the obvious names are already taken for data structures. So my second tranche of suggestions might be useful to anyone who is familiar with “watalotigot”. Unfortunately I prefer suffixes so the classes involving wibbles are grouped alphabetically and separated from the wobbles, eg wibble, wibbleGroup, wibbleAssembly.
    – David
    Commented Sep 29, 2019 at 18:05
  • I am not confusing anything as I still do not understand your answer. You are not explaining it correctly to someone who has no idea of these naming protocols. You could do better.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 29, 2019 at 21:49
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I'd suggest set.

It's a universal word for any grouping of similar items.

Each set contains 500 batches.

Or even batch-set.

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