Canal

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kəˈnæl/

Definitions

1. A waterway constructed by humans to allow boats and ships to pass through or to transport water for irrigation
2. An artificial watercourse created to facilitate the navigation of vessels or to channel water for agricultural and drinking purposes
3. A constructed channel designed primarily for the passage of ships and boats or to distribute water for various uses such as agriculture

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "canal" is that it began as a plant. Latin "canalis" meant a channel or narrow passage, and it was built from "canna", a reed or cane. The reed sense traces back through Ancient Greek "kánna" to the Akkadian "qanû", meaning reed, so a word for a hollow stem ended up naming the hollow ditches people dug to carry water. The word passed into Middle French and Old French as "canal", and English borrowed it from French. Its sense of an artificial waterway follows naturally from the Latin idea of a channel: a stem is a tube, and a tube can be a passage for water. The word is a doublet of "channel", the two forms having descended from the same Latin root by different routes.

Synonyms: waterway, channel