English
ramification
Ramification may come from Middle French ramification ‘division into branches’.
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600ramification‘division into branches’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1817same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600ramification‘division into branches’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1817same form
Earliest quotation: 1817, Hurst: “The treachery of some of the Jacobite agents (Rashleigh…”
Equivalent to ramify + -ication
Latin rāmus ‘a branch’
Medieval Latin ramificō ‘to branch, ramify’
Middle French ramifier
English ramify
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds ‘root’
race, root, radical, rote, wort, eradicate, radish, eradication, radix, 26 more
through Latin rāmus ‘branch’
Today it means
noun A branching-out, the act or result of developing branches; specifically the divergence of the stem and limbs of a plant into smaller ones, or of similar developments in blood vessels, anatomical structures etc.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle French ramification / ramification