Channelize comes from channel + -ize. Channel is from Old French chanel, from Latin canālis ('pipe, channel'), from canna ('reed'). The historical trail runs through canālis in Latin and canna in Latin. Morphologically, channelize is transparent: it draws on channel + -ize. Used as a verb, channelize now means "direct or convey through a channel or defined course", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as channelization and related forms such as channel. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.