VDI 2860 [1] defines terms to describe handling operations. It contains a taxonomy of the most relevant terms of this field. Unfortunately, this specification is only available in German. An unofficial translation can be found in this wiki article.
The following figure shows the taxonoy defined in VDI 2860:
Figure 1: Taxonomy defined in VDI 2860
[1]: VDI 2860: Handhabungsfunktionen, Handhabungseinrichtungen; Begriffe, Definitionen, Symbole , 05/1990.