different between ramification vs intimation

English

Etymology

From Middle French ramification, or its source, Latin ramific?.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?æm?f??ke???n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??æm?f??ke???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

ramification (countable and uncountable, plural ramifications)

1. (botany, anatomy) 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.
   • 1829, Lincoln Phelps, Familiar Lectures on Botany, p. 179:

     The character of trees may be studied to advantage […] in winter, when the forms of the ramification can be seen in the naked boughs […]

   • 1856, Neil Arnott & Isaac Hayes, Elements of Physics, pp. 414-5:

     From the left chamber or ventricle of the strong muscular mass, the heart, a large tube arises, called the aorta; and by a continued division or ramification, opens a way for the bright scarlet blood to the very minutest part of the living frame […]

2. An offshoot of a decision, fact etc.; a consequence or implication, especially one which complicates a situation.
   • 1834, Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy:

     The treachery of some of the Jacobite agents (Rashleigh among the rest), and the arrest of others, had made George the First's Government acquainted with the extensive ramifications of a conspiracy long prepared, and which at last exploded prematurely […]

   • 2009, The Guardian, Chris Power, Booksblog, 14 Jul 09:

     But most often and memorably his work falls into that territory best summed up as speculative fiction, with a particular emphasis on dystopian futures and the existential ramifications of space exploration.

3. (mathematics) An arrangement of branches.

Related terms

• ramify

Translations

Further reading

• ramification in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ramification in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

ramifier +? -ification

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a.mi.fi.ka.sj??/

Noun

ramification f (plural ramifications)

1. a (criminal) network, offshoots of an (often clandestine) organization
2. ramification, implication
3. (botany, anatomy) ramification

Further reading

• “ramification” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Noun

ramification f (plural ramifications)

1. division into branches
   • 1570, Jean Canappe, Tables anatomiques du corps humain universel: soit de l'homme, ou de la femme page 24

     De laquelle nous donnerons la divarication, cestadire ramification, ou division en ses rameaux, quand nous traicterons du foye.

     From which [from the vein] we get separating out, that is to say ramification, or division into several branches, when we are talking about the liver.

Descendants

• ? English: ramification
• French: ramification

English

Etymology

From Middle French intimation, from Latin intimatio

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nt??me???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

intimation (plural intimations)

1. The act of intimating.
2. The thing intimated.
3. Announcement; declaration.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

     They made an edict with an intimation that whosoever killed a stork, should be banished.

4. A hint; an obscure or indirect suggestion or notice; a remote or ambiguous reference.
   • 1862, Henry David Thoreau, Walking:

     At length, perchance, the immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the American mind, and the intimations that star it as much brighter.

   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, p. 378:

     And actually I had important intimations to communicate as he faced the end. But intimations weren't much use.

Translations

Related terms

• intimacy
• intimate

References

• “intimation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).