Dictionary

Chunnel en · PROPN

Pronunciation

• /ˈt͡ʃʌnəl/

Etymology

Blend of Channel (“the English Channel”) + tunnel; the term had been coined by 1960 (see quotation).

Meanings

1. (informal) The Channel Tunnel.
   • Rumors, carefully and cleverly circulated by Mascodagama’s friends, diverted speculations toward his being a mysterious visitor from beyond the Golden Curtain, particularly since at least half-a-dozen members of a large Good-will Circus Company that had come from Tartary just then […] had already defected between France and England, somewhere in the newly constructed ‘Chunnel.’ 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 30, in Ada, or, Ardor: A Family Chronicle, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1970, →ISBN, part 1, page 144:
   • She knows a café here, a French place. Remembering breakfast there with Damien. […]Here it is: faux-French with real French waiting tables. Chunnel kids, guest workers. 2003, William Gibson, Pattern Recognition (Bigend cycle; book 1), New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 79:
   • Sir Brian Robertson, Chairman of the B.T.C., told a London audience in January that he would not be surprised if a Channel tunnel for rail traffic, equipped with special wagons to carry road vehicles, were recommended by the study group which has been re-assessing the feasibility of the "Chunnel". 1960 March, “Talking of Trains: London-Paris in four hours”, in Trains Illustrated, page 134:

Forms

Translations (7)

fr le tunnel sous la Manche (Channel Tunnel — see also Channel Tunnel) · hu Csalagút (Channel Tunnel — see also Channel Tunnel) · it tunnel sotto la Manica (Channel Tunnel — see also Channel Tunnel) · it galleria della Manica (Channel Tunnel — see also Channel Tunnel) · it galleria sotto la Manica (Channel Tunnel — see also Channel Tunnel) · pl Eurotunel (Channel Tunnel — see also Channel Tunnel) · it tunnel della Manica (Channel Tunnel — see also Channel Tunnel)