A journal (through French from late Latin diurnalis, daily) has several related meanings:

• a daily record of events or business; a private journal is usually referred to as a diary.
• a newspaper or other periodical, in the literal sense of one published each day;
• however, some publications issued at stated intervals, such as a magazine or the record of the transactions of society such as a scientific journal or academic journals in general, are called a journal. Journal, then, is sometimes used as a synonym for "magazine".

The word "journalist" for one whose business is writing for the public press has been in use since the end of the 17th century.

"Journal" is also applied to the record, day by day, of the business and proceedings of a public body:

• The journals of the British Houses of Parliament contain an official record of the business transacted day by day in either house. The record does not take note of speeches, though some of the earlier volumes contain references to them. The journals are a lengthened account written from the "Votes and Proceedings" (in the House of Lords called "Minutes of Proceedings"), made day by day by the Clerks at the Table, and printed on the responsibility of the Clerk of the House. In the Commons the Votes and Proceedings, but not the Journal, bear the Speaker's signature in fulfilment of a former order that he should "peruse" them before publication. The journals of the British House of Commons begin in the first year of the reign of Edward VI in 1547, and are complete, except for a short interval under Elizabeth I. Those of the House of Lords date from the first year of Henry VIII in 1509. Before that date the proceedings in parliament were entered in the rolls of parliament, which extend from 1278 to 1503. The journals of the Lords are "records" in the judicial sense, those of the Commons are not (see Erskine May, Parliamentary Practice, 1906, pp. 201-202).
• Section 5 of Article I of the United States Constitution requires the Congress of the United States to keep a journal of its proceedings. This journal, the Congressional Record is published by the Government Printing Office.