Forms: 6 canall, 6–7 canale, 7 canalle, (cannal), 5, 7– canal. [a. F. canal (16th c. in Littré), a refashioning, after L. canāl-em or It. canale, of the earlier F. chenal (chanel, chenel): see CANNEL, CHANNEL. (The 15th-c. instance may be from L.) The words canel, CANNEL, and chanel, CHANNEL, from the same Latin source, but immediately from old French, were in much earlier use in Eng.: when canal was introduced it was to some extent used as a synonym of these, but the forms were at length differentiated.
(There was an OF. (Picard) canal, a variant of canel, in the 12th c., but this had nothing to do with the 16th-c. canal of literary French.)]
† 1. A pipe used for conveying water or liquid; also a tube, or tubular cavity. Obs.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., V. iii. 497. As thoruȝ a pipe or a canal.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 193. The water is broughte from thence in two pypes or Canalls.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 467. These canales (as I may so say of gold ore) follow the veins of such marble and stone in the quarry.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 138. If the sound which would scatter in open Air be made to go all into a Canale, it must needs give greater force to the Sound.
1670. E. King, in Phil. Trans. [They, a sort of Wild Bee] first bore a Canale in the Stock.
1698. Keill, Exam. The. Earth (1734), 95. We take the Diameters and Axis … as small Canals or Tubes.
2. Phys. A tubular cavity in the body of an animal or in the tissues of a plant; a duct; as the alimentary canal, the Haversian canals of the bones, the semicircular canals of the ear, etc. Rarely applied to small tubular passages in inorganic substances. (The second sense in current use.)
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 30. A small Quantity of Spiritts, in the Cells of the Braine, and Canales of the Sinewes, are able to moue the whole Body.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnar., Poet. Wks. 1721, II. 25. Through ev’ry soft Canal, Make vital Spirits sail.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. i. § 1 ¶ 5. 27. The Cavities of the Vestibulum, semicircular Canals, and Cochlea [of the ear].
1764. Reid, Inquiry, iii. Wks. I. 115/2. The entrance of the alimentary canal … the entrance of the canal for respiration.
1801. J. Syer, in Med. Jrnl., V. 172. The duplicature of membrane within the cranium and spinal canal.
1866. Huxley, Phys., xii. (1869), 318. All bones, except the smallest, are traversed by small canals…. These are called Haversian canals.
1869. Phillips, Vesuvius, xi. 308. We found it [Vesuvian lava] pipy, or full of canals.
† 3. A water-course, a CHANNEL generally. Obs. (exc. as influenced by sense 6).
1538. Leland, Itin., II. 72. The … canales of eche partes of Sowey river kept from abundance of wedes.
1674. Petty, Disc. bef. R. Soc., 36–7. The different Velocity of Bodies … experimented in large Canales, or Troughs of water, fitted with a convenient Apparatus for that purpose.
1756. Watson, in Phil. Trans., XLIX. 900. One of the canals, which carries off the waste water from the baths.
1771. Cavendish, ibid. LXI. 607. The fluid shall be able to pass readily from one body to the other by that canal.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. § 25. 366. We could see the water escape from it [moulin] through a lateral canal at its bottom.
† 4. Geog. A (comparatively) narrow piece of water connecting two larger pieces; a strait. Obs.; now CHANNEL.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2119/2. The Canal of the Black Sea near to Scutaret.
1704. Collect. Voy. & Trav., III. 32/1. In the Canal of Bahama.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5473/1. The Turkish Fleet having entred the Canal of Corfu.
1750. Beawes, Lex Mercat. (1752), 8. In the Bottom of the Adriatick Sea, there were a Quantity of small marshy Isles, separated only by narrow Canals.
1829. Sun, 17 Sept., 1/5. The canal of Constantinople, or of the Bosphorus, gives vent to the waters of the Black Sea, which flow … by the canal of the Dardanelles or of the Hellespont.
† 5. A long and narrow piece of water for the ornamentation of a garden or park. [App. directly from 17th c. French; see Littré.] Obs.
1663–4. Pepys, Diary, 14 March. My Lord Southampton’s canalle. Ibid. (1666), 15 July. Walked to the Park; and there (it being mighty hot, and I weary) lay down by the Canalle.
1725. H. de Saumarez, in Phil. Trans., XXXIII. 412. Having a Boat on the Canal in St. James’s Park.
1725. Lond. Gaz., No. 6388/3. A Canal or Fish-Pond well stocked.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 142, ¶ 4. The wall which inclosed the gardens … and the canals.
1827. Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 102. Skating was pursued with great avidity on the Canal in St. James’s, and the Serpentine in Hyde-park.
6. An artificial watercourse constructed to unite rivers, lakes, or seas, and serve the purposes of inland navigation. (The chief modern sense, which tends to influence all the others.)
1673. Temple, Observ. United Prov., iii. 151 (R.). The great Rivers, and the strange number of Canals that are found in this Province.
1703. L. Huddleston (title), Method of conveying Boats or Barges from a higher to a lower level on Canals.
1797. J. Rennie (title), Report concerning a Canal proposed between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 426/1. Shortly after this (1756), Brindley was consulted by the Duke of Bridgewater on the practicability of constructing a canal from Worsley to Manchester.
1857. Buckle, Civiliz., I. iii. 142. If we have no rivers, we make canals.
transf. 1868. G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 176. From the basin of the Orinoco, the wonderful natural canal of the Cassiquiare leads us straight into the Rio Negro.
† 7. fig. A medium of communication, means, agency. Obs.; now CHANNEL.
1722. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 658. You will not fail to send … a full account of your Synod, and I shall be a canal to your friends at Edinburgh.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic., III. lxxxiv. Ignorant of the canal through which he obtained that promotion.
1779. Sir W. Hamilton, in Phil. Trans., LXX. 43. The Royal Society … through the respectable canal of its worthy president.
8. Arch. Applied to various semi-tubular grooves: see quot. More commonly CHANNEL. [These uses already in Latin, in Vitruvius.]
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Canal,… the flutings of a column or pilaster. The canal of the volute is the spiral channel, or sinking on its face, commencing at the eye, and following in the revolutions of the volute. The canal of the larmier is the channel or groove sunk on its soffite to throw off the rain.
9. Zool. The groove in the shells of certain univalve mollusks, for the protrusion of the siphon or breathing tube. (The third current sense.)
1835. [see CANALIFEROUS].
1854. Woodward, Mollusca, 34. Protected by the canal of the shell.
10. Comb., as canal-barge, -boat, -bridge, -carrier, -lock, -man, -watered adj.; canal-built a., of a build adapted to canal navigation; canal-cell (Bot.), a cell in the archegonium of Vascular Cryptogams, which ultimately forms the canal through which fertilization takes place; canal-ways adv.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 104/2. The passengers being … taken on afterwards by another *canal-boat.
1843. Lever, J. Hinton, xix. (1878), 131. I started from Portobello in the canal-boat.
1819. Post Off. Lond. Direct., 319. *Canal-carriers to Manchester, Liverpool, and Staffordshire Potteries.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., II. iv. 336. The *canal-cell penetrates between the rows of cells of the neck and becomes converted into mucilage.
1828. Fall Brunswick Theatre, 1. Rivermen, *canalmen, and their families.
1869. Notes N.-W. Prov. India, 86. Assessing *canal-watered estates to the land revenue.
1831. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 350. If the Chinese … have conveyed their moral government *canal-ways to the other side of the Great Wall.
