Etymologically
Log in

channel

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 18:09. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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
  • 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