canal

Forms

canal m (plural canales)^[1] Charters of the 11th century already write kanales (1078) and kanale (1084); other Old Spanish spellings are cannal, chanal and cannales.^[2] The word is masculine or feminine; the feminine is usual for the roof gutter and was general in older Spanish.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish canal, inherited from Latin canālis (“pipe, conduit, channel”).^[3][6][4][1] In Latin the noun is formed from Latin canna (“reed, cane”) + -ālis, so the word is related to caña.^[1][7][8]

The Latin noun was masculine in the classical language but feminine in Cato, Varro and late authors, with no difference in meaning;^[1] Spanish, like Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan and Romansh, kept both genders, the feminine being typical of particular senses such as the roof gutter.^[3] The same Latin word is Catalan canal, Asturian canal, Galician canle and Galician cal, Portuguese cale and canal, Occitan canal, Old French chenel and Italian canale.^[9][3][1] Cejador thought the Spanish word a learned one, but Corominas and Wiktionary treat it as inherited.^[10][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from 1107; the DEMel has kanales in a charter of 1078 and kanale in one of 1084, and lists 1107 for the Mozarabic documents of Toledo.^[3][2] The first texts give the mill race: the Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) fines whoever breaks a mill wheel, millstone o canal.^[11][12] The Cantar de mio Cid has Celfa la de Canal only as a place name.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From the water channel the word spread in Old Spanish to a gutter, to the flute of a column and to the grooves of Alfonso X's astronomical instruments.^[13] Juan Ruiz already uses it for a slaughtered animal dressed for eating.^[14] Covarrubias in 1611 defines it as a hollowed beam carrying water, open unlike a conduto, and as the deep fairway of a sea; he records the figurative guiar las cosas por sus canales “to arrange things through the proper means”.^[15] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds the roof gutter and the ducts of the body.^[5]

The 1899 Academy dictionary defines the masculine canal as a waterway for irrigation, navigation or supply, and a sea strait between islands or continents.^[16] Modern senses also cover anatomical ducts, a radio or television channel and, figuratively, any means of communication.^[17][18] In the Dominican Republic and Venezuela canal is a lane of a road.^[19]

Timeline

• 1078 – kanales in a charter.^[2]
• 1107 – the date of first record for Corominas.^[3][6]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita uses canal for a mill race.^[11][12]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses it for a slaughtered animal dressed for eating.^[14]
• 1515 – first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1580 – the derivative acanalado is first recorded.^[6]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the sea channel and the proverb Quando corren las canales, no salgas de tus umbrales.^[15]
• 1884 – the verb canalizar is first recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An artificial channel for carrying water, for drainage, irrigation or other uses; a canal.^[4][1]
2. The deepest and clearest part of the entrance to a harbour.^[4]
3. A narrow passage of sea between two coasts; a strait: el canal de Beagle.^[4][18][1]
4. Any of the passages through which water or gases move underground.^[4]
5. A long, narrow plain between two mountains.^[4]
6. A long, hollow groove in a surface; the flute of a column.^[4]
7. A slaughtered animal opened and emptied of its entrails; a carcass.^[4][17]
8. (anatomy) A duct or passage in the body, as in canal auditivo.^[17][21]
9. A radio or television channel: Cambió de canal para ver el partido.^[18][1]
10. A curved roof tile, and the gutter that such tiles form.^[18][4]
11. (Dominican Republic, Venezuela) A lane of a road.^[19]

Word family

• acanalado
• canaladura
• canaleja
• canalizar
• canalón
• encanalar
• acanalar
• canaleta

Related words

• caña
• canilla
• Latin canālis
• Portuguese canal

Usage notes

The DLE marks every sense as masculine or feminine.^[4] Vox uses the masculine for the waterway and the ducts of the body, and the feminine for the carcass and the channels underground;^[1] Moliner keeps the feminine for the curved roof tile and the gutter it forms.^[17][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. canal
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 794
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. canal
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 105
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. canal
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 140
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. canal
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. canal
10. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 237
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. canal
12. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 602
13. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. canal
14. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 93
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 406
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 183
17. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. canal
18. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. canal
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. canal
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. canal
21. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. canal