Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Journal \Jour"nal\, a. [F., fr. L. diurnalis diurnal, fr.
   diurnus belonging to the day, fr. dies day. See {Diurnal}.]
   Daily; diurnal. [Obs.]

         Whiles from their journal labors they did rest.
                                                  --Spenser.

Journal \Jour"nal\, n. [F. journal. See {Journal}, a.]
   1. A diary; an account of daily transactions and events.
      Specifically:
      (a) (Bookkeeping) A book of accounts, in which is entered
          a condensed and grouped statement of the daily
          transactions.
      (b) (Naut.) A daily register of the ship's course and
          distance, the winds, weather, incidents of the voyage,
          etc.
      (c) (Legislature) The record of daily proceedings, kept by
          the clerk.
      (d) A newspaper published daily; by extension, a weekly
          newspaper or any periodical publication, giving an
          account of passing events, the proceedings and memoirs
          of societies, etc.; a periodical; a magazine.

Source : WordNet®

journal
     n 1: a daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and
          observations [syn: {diary}]
     2: a periodical dedicated to a particular subject; "he reads
        the medical journals"
     3: a ledger in which transactions have been recorded as they
        occurred [syn: {daybook}]
     4: a record book as a physical object
     5: the part of the axle contained by a bearing