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{{Short description|Prehistoric tool}}{{refimprove|date=April 2016}} In archaeology, a celt {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɛ|l|t}} is a long, thin, prehistoric, stone or bronze tool similar to an adze, hoe, or axe.A shoe-last celt was a polished stone tool used during the early European Neolithic for felling trees and woodworking.

Etymology

The term "celt" seems to have come about from a copyist's error in many medieval manuscript copies of Job 19:24 in the Latin Vulgate Bible, which became enshrined in the authoritative Sixto-Clementine printed edition of 1592. Where all earlier versions (the Codex Amiatinus, for example) have vel certe (the Latin for 'but surely'), the Sixto-Clementine has vel celte. The Hebrew has לעד (lā‘aḏ) at this point, which means 'forever'. The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary "[incline] to the belief that celtis was a phantom word", simply a misspelling of certe. However, some scholars over the years have treated celtis as a real Latin word.From the context of Job 19:24 ("Oh, that my words were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!"), the Latin word celte was assumed to be some kind of ancient chisel. Eighteenth-century antiquarians, such as {{Interlanguage link multi|Lorenz Beger|de|Lorenz Beger|fr|Lorenz Beger}}, adopted the word for the stone and bronze tools they were finding at prehistoric sites; the OED suggests that a "fancied etymological connexion" with the prehistoric Celts assisted its passage into common use.

See also

• {{annotated link|Hapax legomenon}}
• {{annotated link|Palstave}}
• {{annotated link|Rattleback}}

References

Oxford English Dictionary entry for "CELT (2)," quoted in WEB,weblink Re: the word Celt., Martin Burns, CELTIC-L, The Celtic Culture List, dead,weblink 2011-07-17, BOOK, The Book of Job (Westminster Commentaries), Edgar C. S. Gibson, Walter Lock, Methuen & Co., London, 1899,weblink 2020-09-27, JOURNAL, 636281, Floscvli Philoxenei [Flosculi Philoxenei], M. L. W. Laistner, 1925-01-01, The Classical Quarterly, 19, 3/4, 192–195, 10.1017/S0009838800015846,

External links

• EB1911, Celt (tool),

{{Prehistoric technology| state=expanded}}