Chain parts

[Woods]

How would the segments of a chain be called - the rings at the lower part of this picture:

https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/collection-of-metal-chain-parts-vector-526421

I could come up with something, but it needs to be either something standard or fancy, it's for a poem.

[linguoboy]

“links”

(See definition 2: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/link.)

[Woods]

“links”

(See definition 2: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/link.)

Uh, thanks!

[Woods]

I'm looking for another word now. What would the squares in this type of fence net be called?

https://www.google.com/search?q=fence+net&client=firefox-b-e&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwitq_P9i4TrAhVdAhAIHYRICA0Q_AUoAXoECAsQAw&biw=1252&bih=556#imgrc=uJd-sQLsdsmzAM

[linguoboy]

I don’t think most people have a name for them. The Wikipedia article calls them “diamonds”.

[Woods]

I don’t think most people have a name for them. The Wikipedia article calls them “diamonds”.

Wow, I don't think that would sound right. I called them links again - what do you think?

[linguoboy]

I don’t think most people have a name for them. The Wikipedia article calls them “diamonds”.

Wow, I don't think that would sound right. I called them links again - what do you think?

They are sufficiently different from "links" that I wouldn't use the same word. Links link up unidimensionally while chain-link mesh extends in two directions. My first instinct was to call them "rhomboids".

[Linguaphile]

I don’t think most people have a name for them. The Wikipedia article calls them “diamonds”.

Wow, I don't think that would sound right. I called them links again - what do you think?

I call the whole fence a "chain-link fence" and an individual section of it a "link". I would probably have not said an individual "link" has a diamond shape; instead I'd consider the individual "link" to be the wire portion (rather than the space between) and if pressed I'd probably say that a single link has a zigzag shape and two of them side-by-side form a diamond. But to be honest, I hadn't thought about it in that much detail, and when I saw your question "links" was the first thing that came to mind. It's the only word I have for this sort of thing, even if it isn't precisely the diamond. If you made a comment about the "links" in the fence, chances are we'd be picturing the exact same thing in our minds, even if you were thinking about the empty space and I was thinking about the wire - because in both cases the image depends on the presence of the other part too. A link in this case isn't a link unless it's part of the whole.

If you do a Google image search for "links in a chain-link fence" you get what I was envisioning and probably also what you were envisioning as well, pictures such as these:



This image calls them "chain-links" (again, the wire rather than the space between):

[linguoboy]

To me, only one of those lines is pointing at a "link", the one that is pointing to the section where two wires actually twist around each other. I don't know why I don't think of the straight sections of wire between each point of contact as "links" when I have no trouble considering the entire curved piece of metal in a segment of a chain a single "link", but I do. I guess because if you disassembled the fence, you wouldn't have a pile of "links" like you would if you disassembled a chain but a bunch of long zigzag wires?

[Woods]

If you made a comment about the "links" in the fence, chances are we'd be picturing the exact same thing in our minds, even if you were thinking about the empty space and I was thinking about the wire

Exactly!

So I think I'll go with "links" cause it fits in my context really well, and as long as it's understood by natives and doesn't sound wrong, it does the job pretty well.

Thank you for the very detailed answer both of you!

Actually, knowing that they can only be called links as long as the net holds together, but you cannot detangle them unless you destroy the whole fence, makes it sound even better!