The former, the latter...

This very likely has been discussed before, but I think it's not been thoroughly explained, nor completely covered. As far as I know, most people I encounter think that, when referring to enumerated items, "the former" refers to the first item, and "the latter" to the last, however, this is not what was taught to me, and because most people disagreed with me, I also later verified and the reference material I manage to find it in seconded my English teacher: "The former" refers to the item most recently enumerated, and "the latter" refers to the item before the last item enumerated.

This is because when you speak, you can say something like "I am hesitating between pie, and cake. The former [intuitively, this refers to the cake because you just, most recently mentioned it] would be easier to serve, but the latter [again, in your speech's timeline, this refers to the pie, because it's been the most amount of time since you talked about it] would be most befitting.

When you speak, you don't create a mathematical expression in your listener's mind, and this form ef English expression predates the time when most people knew anything more than basic arithmetic. When you say "... pie, or cake." you don't program DESERT={Pie,Cake} into your listener's mind, to refer to items as DESERT(FORMER), and DESERT(LATTER). That is so incredibly impolite. You are referring to the last thing you said, and the before last thing you said.

I don't think there's anything to discuss here, but I would like people to share their thoughts in this light.