The Word Celt Has Had a Checkered Career

W D T TH E OR CEL . Probably the earliest mention of the word C elt with which in most readers are familiar occurs that classic phrase where , ‘ ’ r in the introduction to his Commentaries on the Gallic Wa , e k G Ca sar, spea ing of the division of all aul into three parts , says that the native name of the group of peoples who occupied G th e the centre of aul between the Seine , Marne and the G aronne is a Celtic word . The word is found long before ’ e . Ca sar s time , however In fact , as early as the end of the i i . C . r s xth century, B , we find , for the fi st time in h story , the G i H ecata eu s f word in a derived form, in the reek wr ter ‘ o u . Milet s , who uses it in a geographic sense In his Voyage ’ i m around the World , of wh ch only frag ents have been pre i eltica served , he says , speak ng of Marseilles , that it is near C , N ra x and he also says that y , wherever that may have been , is elt B . C a Celtic city The word , itself , is found first in erodo t us fi u , in a passage dating from the middle of the fth cent ry h 445 443 C . t e B . , or, more precisely, between years and , where ' o f Kel roe iv e he informs us that the Celts , J at the sources of the D G anube , that is , in the southwest corner of ermany in the G D present rand uchy of Baden , and in Spain and on the coast C elt h mi of the Atlantic . The Latin ae, with w ich we are fa liar in l a Caesar , is the plural of a mascu ine stem and , on it, the ’ Kel ra z late r Greek historians and geographers built the form , ' Kel roe as a variant of the older . There are two very different applications of the word C elt in th e : m ancient writers as the na e of a tribe in Gaul , and as the general name for all the Celts of the Continent . Appar s ently, the ancients never applied the name to the inhabitant h t e . own of British Isles Since each tribe had its name , it is probable that the word C elt was originally nothing more than the name of one of these tribes , but, just why it was given to a that particular group of people that C esar speaks of, we have wa n . O G no y of knowing the other hand , the reeks , up to the third century B . C . , not only had no other name than this for al l e the Continental Celts , but the confusion is height ned by 2 0 A E G O B E T LI UNIVERSITY ULL TIN . their sometimes including under that denomination , the G er ' f f a l dz' az Ke/lz-oc . O G allt mans the three words , , and , which are found applied to the Celts by the ancient authors , we may say that, as a rule , they are used without much difference of mean Diod r in . o us g Some , however (as the Sicilian) , seem to mean 163 17 0 6 13118 Of G Fa l dz' a c by 2 Celts aul , and by , the Germans ; to Dio th others ( as Cassius) these terms meant just e reverse . The poets probably h a d the Celts in mind when they wrote of H yperboreans . There is not the slightest reason to believe K Fat/ Mm e G a llt that and are all forms of the same word , as i D 1840 llect was the opin on of iefenbach ( ) and of Leibnitz ( C o . “ E t m 9 nev ol . 7 O G e ae 1768 G et y , p , pera , , ) alatas Celtas idem ” cabulum u em vo p t . The word Celt has had a checkered career . It has grown th e ex t ra. from the name of a single tribe , so as to include (in Celtic use of the word) in a vague way, all the members of the family, so that now it has come to mean anyone who speaks , or is descended from one who speaks , any Celtic language . This is a quite modern use of the word , and there is nothing to show that the Celts themselves ever employed it, or that it is - i an employed properly to day, in this wider mean ng, in y of the - neo Celtic languages . It is doubtful if the Celts of antiquity ever felt or acted as a united people , except to a certain extent, ’ under Vercingetorix lead at the siege of Alesia . It would be interesting to know why the Celts called them or selves by that name , what is just as likely, why they were H n called so by their neighbors or enemies . ere nothing certai k P 1 . 3 . D . is nown ausanias , writing about the year 7 A , says h that that was the name which the Celts had given t emselves , “ 51 t r m a . s u and C esar ( B as we have seen , says that, p o ” lin k ua . g , they were called Celts It is well nown that coun tries and their inhabitants more often bear names given them by their discoverers and first explorers than names that origi “ ” th e a nat ed . at home For example , Indian as n me of the An Red Skins . interesting instance or two from Celtic topo A llo bro es nomy will illustrate this point . The Gaulish g were “ ’ ” ak originally those of another, not of the spe er s country , and they must have got the name from another Celtic speak h A r ll ing tribe that lived outside t eir borders . gy , the name of 3 THE WORD CELT . that part of Scotland that lies between the Mull of Kintyre and th e E a rra - hdidhe l the Clyde is , in dialect of that district, g a , a irer— e ld el which represents an older g , the first member of which it has recently been sought to equate with the Irish ” irth r s a e ea tern , and to conclude that the name meant ori “ ” i - g na lly the east land of the Gail . It is true that it was pre cisely in that part of Scotland th at the old Kingdom of Da lri da n a was established but, unfortu ately for the value of A r ll i gy as an illustration , there are some objections that w ll have to be met before this explanation of its meaning can be entirely satisfactory . C elt At all events , the name may have been imposed upon some tribe from without , by the uitlander , and need not be of . hi im Celtic origin This is at least a possibility, but ghly prob able, and the statements of the ancient writers that the word belonged to the language of the people wh o bore the name is generally accepted . We must confess that we know nothing elt of the exact meaning of the word C , but it has at all times been the delight of dilettanti and bibliophiles to speculate on e i its origin and meaning . Court de Géb l n in the eighteenth lt century wished to bring it into relation with the German K d e, G elt en D 1804 k Leibnitz , with the erman g , and avies ( ) ma es it H ” “ ” out to be the ebrew 71 53 , the men of the extremity , to intimate the position occupied by the descendants of Gomer who , according to many of the scholars of the early part of the m i r . last century, were the Cy The relation of the word to “ ” cl eth e l h the Irish , great , noble , is to be rej ected a ong wit the other explanations which are here resurrected only as o t h curiosities . The only hypotheses y of consideration are the following : ( 1 ) It has been suggested that the root of the Old - a r- cel —im word is the same as that found in Irish , Middle “ ” r— h ell - tm o ff u Old - Irish a c a I carry , pl nder, steal , in Irish “ - h im r re cello ca la mitas fo c el I protect and in Latin ( p e ) , , ’ “ ” — - in c lumis clci d es clcl va i ka lti r. o , , , Lithuan an to beat , hamme ( 2 ) It has been suggested that the word means “ warrior * and that from it is derived the pre - Germanic C eltio the Old hild “ ” h i G erman ja battle ; the Frankis , wh ch is seen in “ ” u childis ld - N hil - r Old - ( Br ni the O orse d war, and the Eng “ l l 3 is ish hi d fight . ( ) It has been suggested that the word 4 CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY B ULLETIN . “ connected with the word of the same form meaning dress or ” kilt raiment , which we know in the Scotch . When applied “ ” th e to a tribe it would mean clothed ones , and according to this explanation, combined with that given under the “ ” . 4 Fi Celts would be the people clothed in armor ( ) nally, th at th e it has been suggested x word is a participial formation - t o kel hi n cels us c el — t o - s in from a root w ch we know in Lati ( ) , k lt a - é s .

Load more