canal

Forms

canal m (plural canais)^[1] Medieval texts write canal, canales, cãnal, caal and caales, and in the 15th century the plural canaaes.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin canālis (“pipe, channel”), written Old Galician-Portuguese canal in the oldest texts, with a variant Old Galician-Portuguese caal from 1348.^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary suggests that the word may be an early borrowing or a semi-learned word, beside the popular cale.^[1] The Latin noun was masculine, but feminine in Cato, Varro and late writers.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician canle, Galician cal, Spanish canal, Catalan canal and Italian canale.^[6][7][1] The French equivalents are canal and, in geography, chenal, the source of English channel.^[2]

The Latin word is canna (“reed”) with the suffix -ālis.^[8][9] The Latin noun for reed is from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian qanûm (“reed”).^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a king sends his men to check his fish channels: foron mantenente a un canal, e acharon / de pescado carregadas quatro barcas “they went at once to a channel and found four boats loaded with fish”.^[4] The Galician Crónica Geral speaks of as caales et as priuadas et os canos da uila, the town's drains, privies and pipes.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) defines it as a ditch through which water is led, by land or from sea to sea, and records the sense “narrow arm of the sea between two coasts”, the figurative “channel, means”, as in the channels by which favours are obtained, and the flutes of a column in architecture.^[12] Figueiredo (1899) has the anatomical sense, a passage for gases or liquids in a living body.^[13]

The word was later applied to broadcasting, for the band of frequencies of a radio or television station and then the station itself.^[2][1][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][4]
• 1348 – the variant caal.^[4]
• c. 1430 – canal in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin canalis.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records the senses “strait” and “means”.^[12]
• 1844 – first record of canalização and canalizar.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ditch or channel, natural or artificial, through which water flows.^[2][17][1]
2. A canal: an artificial waterway for navigation or irrigation.^[2][17][1]
3. A narrow stretch of sea between two coasts; a strait: o Canal da Mancha.^[2][18]
4. A pipe or conduit for liquids or gases.^[2][19]
5. The bed of a river.^[2][17]
6. (figurative) A way, means, especially in the plural: pelos canais competentes.^[2][17]
7. (anatomy) A duct or passage in the body; ducto.^[2][17]
8. (architecture) Each of the hollows of a triglyph or column.^[2]
9. (radio, television) A band of frequencies used by a station; a channel, and the station itself.^[2][1][14]
10. (communication) The medium through which a message travels.^[2][14]

Word family

• canalizar
• canalização
• canalículo
• canaliforme

Related words

• cale
• calha
• cano
• cana
• Latin canālis
• Galician canle
• Spanish canal

Usage notes

The DLP records a separate regional canal, “a place where reeds grow”, formed from cana with the suffix -al.^[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 d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. canal
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. canal
4. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. canal
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 794
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. canalis
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1568
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. canālis
9. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. canalis
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. canna
11. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. κάννα
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 223
13. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 239
14. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. canal
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. canal
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. canal
17. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. canal
18. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. canal
19. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. canal