channel

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtʃæn.əl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chanel,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French chanel (“bed of a waterway; tube, pipe, gutter”),^[4][2] a partly latinized variant of chenel,^[5][6] from Latin canālis (“groove, channel, water pipe”),^[4][2] from canna (“reed, pipe”), the source of cane.^[5][6] It is a doublet of canal.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bed of a stream or of the sea: before 1300 in the OED,^[7] the early 14th century in Etymonline,^[4] and before 1325 in Cursor Mundi in Barnhart.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A gutter beside a street is from about 1440,^[7] and a navigable passage between shallows from 1553.^[7] A large strait between two land masses, as the English Channel, is from the 1550s.^[4] The figurative sense, that through which something passes, a medium of communication, is from 1537, in the sermons of Bishop Latimer,^[2][4] and an artificial waterway from 1612.^[7] A circuit for telegraph messages (1848) probably led to a band of frequencies for radio or television (1928).^[4] The verb, “to cut channels in”, is from 1596, in Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV,^[2][6] and “to convey in a channel” from the 1640s.^[4] To serve as a medium for a spirit is a late 20th-century sense.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1300 – the bed of a stream.^[7]
• 1537 – a medium of communication.^[2]
• 1550s – a strait.^[4]
• 1596 – verb, to cut channels in.^[2]
• 1640s – verb, to convey.^[4]
• 1848 – a telegraph circuit.^[4]
• 1928 – a radio or television channel.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The bed of a stream or river; the deeper, navigable part of a river or harbor.
2. A wide strait linking two seas: the English Channel.
3. A groove, furrow or pipe for liquids.
4. A means of communication or route through which something passes: official channels.
5. A band of frequencies for broadcasting; a television or radio station.

Verb

1. To direct along a particular course: channel energy into work.
2. To cut channels in.
3. To serve as a medium for a spirit.

Word family

• channeler
• channel-hopping
• channel-surf
• channelize
• interchannel
• mischannel
• multichannel
• rechannel

Related words

• canal
• cane

Usage notes

A separate nautical noun channel, a plank projecting from a ship's side to spread the shrouds, is an alteration of chain-wale, from 1769.^[7][5][3]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin