_Derivation of Celt._--What is the proper derivation of the word _celt_, as
applied to certain weapons of antiquity? A good authority, in Dr. Smith's
_Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, p. 351., obtains the term
from--
"Celtes, an old Latin word for a chisel, probably derived from caelo, to
engrave."
Mr. Wright (_The Celt, Roman, and Saxon_, p. 73.) says that Hearne first
applied the word to such implements in _bronze_, believing them to be
"Roman _celtes_ or chisels;" and that--
"Subsequent writers, ascribing these instruments to the Britons, have
retained the name, forgetting its origin, and have applied it
indiscriminately, not only to other implements of bronze, but even to
the analogous instruments of _stone_."
And he objects to the term "as too generally implying that things to which
it is applied are Celtic." On the other hand, Dr. Wilson (_Prehistoric
Annals_, p. 129.) prefers to retain the word, inasmuch as the Welsh
etymologists, Owen and Spurrell, furnish an ancient Cambro-British word
_celt_, a flint stone. M. Worsaae (_Primeval Antiq._, p. 26.) confines the
term to those instruments of bronze which have a hollow socket to receive a
wooden handle; the other forms being called paalstabs on the Continent. It
seems clear that there is no connexion between this word and the name of
the nation (_Celtae_); but its true origin may perhaps be elicited by a
little discussion in the pages of "N. & Q."