Celt
adj, name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A member of one of the ancient peoples of Western Europe called Celtae by the Romans. historical
- 2 A prehistoric chisel-bladed tool.
"The later division of the Bronze age is characterised by the appearance of swords, spears, palstaves, and socketed celts."
- 3 a member of a European people who once occupied Britain and Spain and Gaul prior to Roman times wordnet
- 4 A member of any of the (modern, Celtic) peoples who speak Celtic languages.
- 1 Synonym of Celtic.
"In the thick of parties we become very Celt, disgusting the dull."
- 1 Acronym of Constrained Energy Lapped Transform: a royalty-free lossy audio compression format for use in low-latency audio communication. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
Example
More examples"Christopher Columbus once engaged in a debate with the Divine Celt. It would become the only contest that Columbus ever lost."
Etymology
From Latin Celtae (singular Celta) from Ancient Greek Κελτοί (Keltoí). English Celts is from the 17th century. Until the mid 19th century, /sɛlt/ is the only recorded pronunciation. A consciously archaizing pronunciation /kɛlt/ was advocated during Irish and Welsh nationalism beginning in the 1850s.
From Latin celtis (“chisel”), very probably a ghost word originating from a copyist's error in the Vulgate Bible, but taken as genuine and subsequently used in Medieval Latin.