ramification

[French, from ramifier = to ramify (q. v.).] I. Ordinary Language: 1. Literally: (1) The act of ramifying; the proce of branch. ing or shooting out branches from a stem. (2) The production of figures resembling branches. 2. Figuratively: (1) A small branch or offshoot from a main stock or channel. "The pulmonary artery and vein pa along the surfaces of these air bladders in an infinite number of rami fications." - Arbuthnot: On Aliments , ch. ii. (2) A subordinate branch; an offshoot. "At present a great party zealous for popular govern ment, has ramifications in every civilized country."Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., ch. ii. (3) A division or subdivision in a cla ification; the exposition of a subject, . "When the radical idea branches out into parallel ramifications, how can a consecutive series be formed of senses in their nature collateral?"-Johnson: Pref. to IMG:content-0190.png:[blocks in formation] bốil, boy; pout, jowl; cat, çell, chorus, A. Transitive : B. Intransitive: rammish 1. Lit .: To shoot out in branches; to send out branches. "Asparagus affects the urine with a fœtid smell, especially if cut when they are white; when they are older, and begin to ramify , they lose this quality." -Arbuthnot: On Aliments, ch. iii. 2. Fig .: To be divided or subdivided; to send out or have offshoots or branches. "A system of secret societies which ramified through the towns of England."-Century Magazine, June, 1888, p. 253. *ra-mî'-liě, *ra-mil-liě (1 as y), subst . [In commemoration of the battle of Ramilies (1706).] 1. A cocked-hat, worn in IMG:content-0191.png:[blocks in formation] Rā-mişm, s . [For etym.see def.] Hist. & Philos.: The philosophical and dialect i- cal system of Pierre de la Ramée (better known by his Latinized name, Ramus), royal profe or of rhetoric and philosophy at Paris. He was born in 1515, and was one of the victims of the Ma acre of St. Bartholomew (1572). He was a strong opponent of Scholasticism, and of the dialectics of Aristotle. In his Institutiones Dialecticæ (Paris, 1543) he attempted to provide a new system of logic, which, like Cicero, he strove to blend with rhetoric. That book formed the groundwork of the Logic published by Milton in 1672. Rā-mist, a . & 8. [Eng. ram ( ism ); -ist.] A. As adj .: Belonging to or connected with Ramism (q. v.); Ramean. "Bacon expounds the system of logic with unmistakable reference to the Ramist principles." -Encyc. Brit. (ed. 9th), xiv. 803. B. As subst.: A follower of Ramus; a Ramean. "The controversy which raged between the Aristo tel i ans and the total or partial Ramists." -Encyc. Brit . (ed. 9th), xiv. 803. răm-line, s. [Eng.ram, and line.] A line used to secure a straight line from stem to stem in building a ship.