Meaning

noun a path over which electrical signals can pass

noun a passage for water (or other fluids) to flow through

noun a long narrow furrow cut either by a natural process (such as erosion) or by a tool (as e.g. a groove in a phonograph record)

originNamed after the Channel Islands, from where settlers once came from, in the early 18th-century. The Channel Islands are located in the English Channel, a strait (channel) separating the island of Great Britain from the coast of mainland Europe.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0