ramify

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French ramifier, from Medieval Latin ramificare (“to branch, ramify”), from Latin rāmus (“a branch”) + faciō (“do, make”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹæm.ɪ.faɪ/, /ˈɹæm.ə.faɪ/

• Audio (US)

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Verb

ramify (third-person singular simple present ramifies, present participle ramifying, simple past and past participle ramified)

1. To divide into branches or subdivisions.
   • 1893, Henry Morris, Human Anatomy, page 648

     The cortical, hemispheral or superficial veins ramify on the surface of the brain and return the blood from the cortical substance into the venous sinuses.

2. (figuratively) To spread or diversify into multiple fields or categories.

   to ramify an art, subject, scheme.

   • 2003, Wim van Binsbergen, Intercultural Encounters: African and anthropological lessons towards a philosophy of interculturality, page 285

     My point here is that the field within which such determination takes place is not bounded to constitute a single discipline, a single academic elite, a single language domain, a single culture, a single historical period, but that that field ramifies out so as to encompass, ultimately, the entire history of the whole of humankind.