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I'm looking for a word that describes an origin and destination, regardless of the route taken.

The words I've come up with so far, route, trip, travel, etc. all imply a specific set of directions.

To clarify: I'm interested in a noun that describes a set of two points, one of which is an origin, and the other a destination. It does not care about how, or even if, the travel is made.

Additional clarification: The motivation for the question is the naming of a software class. This class holds information about traveling one point to another. Those travels can occur along multiple routes (another class), hence the desire for a path-agnostic noun.

Despite the original motivation, I am now very curious for a word to describe this, regardless of the software development context. The best I've found so far is 'commute.'

As a thought... I'd imagine the airline industry must have a term for this. Travel from Hong Kong to New York - one route may have a layover, another may be direct, though the origin and destination are the same.

Michael
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    It seems like anything can "suggest" as set of directions since you cannot have an origin and destination without travelling...I agree with @cornbreadninja麵包忍者 that trip and travel both minimize the association. Is this for software or UI design? – JeffSahol Sep 03 '13 at 19:01
  • It is indeed for software design. I'm struggling to find the least ambiguous term for an object. – Michael Sep 03 '13 at 19:03
  • In that case, you might consider "vector". – JeffSahol Sep 03 '13 at 19:05
  • I had always seen this referred to as simply "origin-destination" (e.g. a set of points whose routes/transit times vary) but I'd be quite interested to see if anyone comes up with something better. – Jack Ryan Sep 03 '13 at 19:07
  • There's 67,300 hits in google for: lineBegin and lineEnd – dcaswell Sep 03 '13 at 19:08
  • My understanding, and usage, of vector has always been in instances of angular direction and velocity. But I suppose it could work. – Michael Sep 03 '13 at 19:29

5 Answers5

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Consider termini, which is a plural form of terminus, which is an end point (either end) of a route. Also terminals, like stations where service begins or ends, and endpoints, either of the two points at the end of a line segment, and waypoints, mapped reference points on a route.

James Waldby - jwpat7
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What about the word journey

  1. an act or instance of traveling from one place to another

Edit: If you're looking for the start and end locations, the term node is generally used. Since maps are structured using trees, they simply incorporated their naming scheme.

Edit 2: I would say the collection of start and end points could be called the path. While there may be points between, this would be the general gist of your vector.

Jacobm001
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  • node-pair

  • startpoint-endpoint (pair)

  • city-pair / airport-pair / ...

I believe city-pair is common parlance in the airline industry.

smci
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Waypoint might fit, especially if the data is geographic.

In graph theory, you would simply call them S and T. S for source, and T either for target or because it comes after S in the alphabet.

Kevin Krumwiede
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I fully agree with the listed answers such as waypoint, node and terminals. However, itinerary might also suit your needs. It indicates travel from A to B, without directly indicating how/when/where. It does however indicate that this information is to be found within the itinerary.

Wolhandkrab
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