Chunnel

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The undersea tunnel that links England and France beneath the English Channel, carrying both rail and vehicle traffic
2. A submarine passageway running beneath the English Channel between the United Kingdom and continental Europe
3. The submerged transport tunnel joining Britain and France under the waters of the English Channel

Etymology: The Channel Tunnel was a long-discussed project for linking Britain and France beneath the sea, and the blend "chunnel" was in circulation well before it opened in 1994. It joins "Channel," the name for the English Channel, with "tunnel," and the term had already been coined by 1960, as the earliest quotation for it shows. The word is a straightforward portmanteau: two existing English words are fused, with the start of the first and the end of the second combined into one new form. Its appeal lies in how plainly it names the thing, a tunnel under the Channel, which is why it spread quickly as a casual name for the project.

Synonyms: tunnel