Also Kelt. [a. F. Celte, ad. L. Celta, sing. of Celtæ, in Gr. Κελτοί. (A later Gr. Κέλται, in Strabo, etc., was probably from L. Celtæ.) For conjectures as to a possible derivation, see Rhys, Celtic Britain (1882), 2.]
1. Hist. Applied to the ancient peoples of Western Europe, called by the Greeks Κελτοί, Κέλται, and by the Romans Celtæ.
The Κελτοί of the Greeks, also called Γαλάται, Galatæ, appear to have been the Gauls and their (continental) kin as a whole; by Cæsar the name Celtæ was restricted to the people of middle Gaul (Gallia Celtica), but most other Roman writers used it of all the Galli or Gauls, including the peoples in Spain and Upper Italy believed to be of the same language and race; the ancients apparently never extended the name to the Britons.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 251. The Indians were wont to use no bridles, like the Græcians and Celts.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Celt, one born in Gaul.
1782. Warton, Hist. Kiddington, 67 (T.). This obstinate war between the insular Britons and the continental Celts.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, VIII. 411. The Celts advanced within five or six days’ march of his camp.
2. A general name applied in modern times to peoples speaking languages akin to those of the ancient Galli, including the Bretons in France, the Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Manx, and Gaelic of the British Isles.
This modern use began in French, and in reference to the language and people of Brittany, as the presumed representatives of the ancient Gauls: with the recognition of linguistic affinities it was extended to the Cornish and Welsh, and so to the Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic. CELTIC has thus become a name for one of the great branches of the Aryan family of languages (see CELTIC); and the name Celt has come to be applied to any one who speaks (or is descended from those who spoke) any Celtic language. But it is not certain that these constitute one race ethnologically; it is generally held that they represent at least two ‘races,’ markedly differing in physical characteristics. Popular notions, however, associate ‘race’ with language, and it is common to speak of the ‘Celts’ and ‘Celtic race’ as an ethnological unity having certain supposed physical and moral characteristics, especially as distinguished from ‘Saxon’ or ‘Teuton.’
[1703. Pezron (title), Antiquité de la Nation et de la langue des Celtes.
1706. Jones (trans. of Pezron), Antiquities of Nations, more particularly of the Celtæ or Gauls, Taken to be Originally the same People as our Ancient Britains.
1757. Tindal, trans. Rapin’s Hist. Eng., Introd. 7. Great Britain was peopled by the Celtæ or Gauls.]
1773. McQueen, in Boswell, Johnson, Sept. 18. As they [Scythians] were the ancestors of the Celts, the same religion might be in Asia Minor and Skye.
1842. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 185. This race, who had probably been expelled by the Italian nations and the Celts from Italy and Gaul.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), II. IV. i. 182. The Celts of Britain are apparently the oldest among the Aryan races.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Race, Wks. (Bohn), II. 21. If that be true … that Celts love unity of power, and Saxons the representative principle.
Hence Celtified ppl. a. (nonce-wd.), made Celtic in fashion or garb. Celtish a., Celt-like, somewhat Celtic. Celtism, the distinctive character of the Celt. Celtist, one who studies the Celtic languages. Celtization, a making Celtic; conversion to being Celtic.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, xx. 459. Sir Walter’s Celtified pageantry.
1866. M. Arnold, in Cornh. Mag., March, 289. A more attentive and impartial study of Celtism than it has yet ever received from us. Ibid., May, 547. Celtism is … everywhere manifest still in the French nation. Ibid., March, 289. This is a very different matter from the political and social Celtization of which certain enthusiasts dream.
1885. Athenæum, 17 Jan., 86/1. The name of a French Celtist.
