canale

Forms

canale m (plural canali)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin canālis (“pipe, conduit, channel”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word was first an adjective meaning “reed-shaped”, formed from canna (“reed”) with the suffix -ālis, and was used as both masculine and feminine.^[5][6][3][7] Devoto explains its single ⟨n⟩ as the simplification of the double consonant of *cannālis before the stress.^[8][1] The Latin noun for “reed” was itself borrowed from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”).^[1]

The word is pan-Romance except Romanian.^[6][9] It is Old French chanel (modern French chenal), Occitan canal, Catalan canal and Spanish canal, feminine in Spanish.^[3][10] Sardinian and the literary languages of France and Italy prefer the masculine, while Occitan, Catalan, northern Italy and Romansh often use a feminine for some senses.^[6] Latin also lent the word to Old High German kanali (modern German Kanal), and the Old French form gave the English word channel.^[3] French took the Italian word in the 16th century as canal.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Breve di Montieri, a Tuscan statute of 1219, where il canale del piano e ’l canale del bosco (“the channel of the plain and the channel of the wood”) are man-made watercourses.^[11][2][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for a wooden or masonry conduit, for a vat or press for treading grapes, for a mine shaft, for the narrow navigable waterways between the islands of the Venetian lagoon, and for a stretch of sea between two coasts.^[12][13] Dante uses it for the bed of a river.^[6] The sense “narrow, deep valley” lives on in the Alps of Veneto and Trentino and in Sardinia.^[9]

The modern dictionaries date the gully in a rock face (1623, Giambattista Marino), the pipe (before 1639, Tommaso Campanella), the arm of the sea (1584, Filippo Sassetti) and the figurative “route, means” (before 1698, Francesco Redi).^[2] The anatomical sense is also first found in Marino; the older example attributed to Bencivenni in the Crusca, Tommaseo and the GDLI is a forgery.^[2] The band of frequencies for telephone, radio and television followed in 1942.^[2] Canalizzare and canalizzazione were modelled on French canaliser and canalisation.^[2][3]

German took the word from Italian as Kanal, recorded from 1472–1473 for a watercourse and a navigable passage.^[14]

Timeline

• 1219 – The Breve di Montieri names two man-made channels.^[2][12]
• About 1313 – Dante uses canale for a river bed.^[6]
• 1472–1473 – German Kanal is first recorded, from Italian.^[14]
• 1584 – Filippo Sassetti uses the word for an arm of the sea.^[2]
• 1623 – Giambattista Marino uses it for a gully in a rock face and for an anatomical duct.^[2]
• Before 1698 – Francesco Redi uses it figuratively for a route or means.^[2]
• 1875 – Canalizzazione is recorded.^[2]
• Before 1927 – Federico De Roberto uses canalone for a deep mountain gully.^[2]
• 1942 – The sense “band of frequencies” for telephone, radio and television appears.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A canal: an artificial watercourse for irrigation, drainage or navigation; in Venice, a waterway between the houses: il Canal Grande.^[4][15][16]
2. (geography) A channel: an arm of the sea between two coasts, wider than a strait: il canale di Sicilia.^[4][17][18]
3. (mountaineering) A gully eroded in a rocky slope; a canalone.^[16][17][4]
4. A pipe or conduit for water or other material; a gutter (grondaia).^[4][15][18]
5. (anatomy, botany) A tubular duct in a body or plant: canale vertebrale, canali resiniferi.^[15][16][18]
6. (telecommunications) A band of frequencies used for a transmission; a television channel: Cambia canale, per favore.^[15][16][18]
7. (figurative) A route or means of communication or distribution: canali diplomatici.^[15][16][19]
8. (computing) A link that carries data between a computer's central unit and its peripherals, or between computers.^[15][16]

Word family

• canalone
• canaletto
• canalizzare
• canalizzazione
• canalicolo
• incanalare
• scanalare
• scanalatura

Related words

• canna
• English channel
• French chenal
• Latin canalis

Usage notes

In northern Italy and Tuscany canale can also mean a plain ditch, and in some regions the gap between two blocks of seats in a theatre.^[17][20] The dialects also have feminine forms such as canala.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
6. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 549
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 711
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 613
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 219
14. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
18. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
19. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
20. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)