The various names used since classical times for the people known today as the Celts are of disparate origins.
The names (Keltoí) and are used in Greek and Latin, respectively, to denote a people of the La Tène horizon in the region of the upper Rhine and Danube during the 6th to 1st centuries BC in Graeco-Roman ethnography. The etymology of this name and that of the Gauls / is uncertain.
The linguistic sense of Celts, a grouping of all speakers of Celtic languages, is modern. There is scant record of the term "Celt" being used prior to the 17th century in connection with the inhabitants of Ireland and Great Britain during the Iron Age. However, Parthenius writes that Celtus descended through Heracles from Bretannos, which may have been a partial (because the myth's roots are older) post–Gallic War epithet of Druids who traveled to the islands for formal study, and was the posited seat of the order's origins.
Celts, Celtae The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as (Keltoí) – to refer to an ethnic group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC when writing about a people living near Massilia (modern Marseille).H. D. Rankin, In the 5th century BC, Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the head of the Danube and also in the far west of Europe.Herodotus, The Histories, 2.33; 4.49.
The etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Possible origins include the Indo-European roots *ḱel,https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/%E1%B8%B1el- 'to cover or hide' (cf. Old Irish celid), *ḱel-, 'to heat', or *kel- 'to impel'.John T. Koch (ed.), Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia. 5 vols. 2006, p. 371. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. Several authors have supposed the term to be Celtic in origin, while others view it as a name coined by Greeks. Linguist Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel falls in the latter group; she suggests that it means "the tall ones".P. De Bernardo Stempel 2008. Linguistically Celtic ethnonyms: towards a classification, in Celtic and Other Languages in Ancient Europe, J. L. García Alonso (ed.), 101-118. Ediciones Universidad Salamanca.
The Romans preferred the name Gauls () for those Celts whom they first encountered in northern Italy (Cisalpine Gaul). In the 1st century BC, Caesar referred to the Gauls as calling themselves "Celts" in their own tongue.Julius Caesar, 1.1: "All Gaul is divided into three parts, in one of which the Belgae live, another in which the Aquitani live, and the third are those who in their own tongue are called Celts (), in our language Gauls (). Compare the tribal name of the .
According to the 1st-century poet Parthenius of Nicaea, Celtus (, Keltos) was the son of Heracles and Celtine (, Keltine), the daughter of Bretannus (, Brettanos); this literary genealogy exists nowhere else and was not connected with any known cult.Parthenius, Love Stories 2, 30 Celtus became the eponymous ancestor of Celts."Celtine, daughter of Bretannus, fell in love with Heracles and hid away his kine (the cattle of Geryon) refusing to give them back to him unless he would first content her. From Celtus the Celtic race derived their name." In Latin, came in turn from Herodotus's word for the Gauls, . The Romans used to refer to continental Gauls, but apparently not to Insular Celts. The latter are divided linguistically into Goidels and Brythons.
The name Celtiberi is used by Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC, of a people whom he considered a mixture of Celtae and Iberi.
Celtici
Aside from the Celtiberians — Lusones, Titii, Arevaci, and Pellendones, among others – who inhabited large regions of central Spain, Greek and Roman geographers also spoke of a people or group of peoples called Celtici or Κελτικοί living in the south of modern-day Portugal, in the Alentejo region, between the Tagus and Guadiana rivers. They are first mentioned by Strabo, who wrote that they were the most numerous people inhabiting that region. Later, Ptolemy referred to the Celtici inhabiting a more reduced territory, comprising the regions from Évora to Setúbal, i.e. the coastal and southern areas occupied by the Turdetani.
Pliny mentioned a second group of Celtici living in the region of Baeturia (northwestern Andalusia); he considered that they were "of the Celtiberians from the Lusitania, because of their religion, language, and because of the names of their cities".'Celticos a Celtiberis ex Lusitania advenisse manifestum est sacris, lingua, oppidorum vocabulis', NH, II.13
In Galicia in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, another group of CelticiCeltici: Pomponius Mela and Pliny; Κελτικοί: Strabo dwelt along the coasts. They comprised several populi, including the Celtici proper: the Praestamarici south of the Tambre river (Tamaris), the Supertamarici north of it, and the Nerii by the Celtic promontory (Promunturium Celticum). Pomponius Mela affirmed that all inhabitants of Iberia's coastal regions, from the bays of southern Galicia to the Astures, were also Celtici: "All (this coast) is inhabited by the Celtici, except from the Douro river to the bays, where the Grovi dwelt (…) In the north coast first there are the Artabri, still of the Celtic people (Celticae gentis), and after them the Astures."'Totam Celtici colunt, sed a Durio ad flexum Grovi, fluuntque per eos Avo, Celadus, Nebis, Minius et cui oblivionis cognomen est Limia. Flexus ipse Lambriacam urbem amplexus recipit fluvios Laeron et Ullam. Partem quae prominet Praesamarchi habitant, perque eos Tamaris et Sars flumina non-longe orta decurrunt, Tamaris secundum Ebora portum, Sars iuxta turrem Augusti titulo memorabilem. Cetera super Tamarici Nerique incolunt in eo tractu ultimi. Hactenus enim ad occidentem versa litora pertinent. Deinde ad septentriones toto latere terra convertitur a Celtico promunturio ad Pyrenaeum usque. Perpetua eius ora, nisi ubi modici recessus ac parva promunturia sunt, ad Cantabros paene recta est. In ea primum Artabri sunt etiamnum Celticae gentis, deinde Astyres.', Pomponius Mela, Chorographia, III.7-9. He also wrote that the fabulous isles of tin, the Cassiterides, were situated among these Celtici.Pomponius Mela, Chorographia, III.40.
The Celtici Supertarmarci have also left a number of inscriptions,Eburia / Calveni f(ilia) / Celtica / Sup(ertamarca) |(castello?) / Lubri; Fusca Co/edi f(ilia) Celti/ca Superta(marca) / |(castello) Blaniobr/i; Apana Ambo/lli f(ilia) Celtica / Supertam(arca) / Maiobri; Clarinu/s Clari f(ilius) Celticus Su/pertama(ricus). Cf. Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby . as the Celtici Flavienses did.[Do]quirus Doci f(ilius) / [Ce]lticoflavien(sis); Cassius Vegetus / Celti Flaviensis. Several villages and rural parishes still bear the name Céltigos (from Latin Celticos) in Galicia. This is also the name of an archpriesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, a division of the archbishopric of Santiago de Compostela, encompassing part of the lands attributed to the Celtici Supertamarici by ancient authors.
Introduction in Early Modern literature The name Celtae was revived in the literature of the Early Modern period. The French celtique and German celtisch first appear in the 16th century; the English word Celts is first attested in 1607.The Indians were wont to use no bridles, like the Græcians and Celts. Edward Topsell, The historie of foure-footed beastes (1607), p. 251 (cited after OED). The adjective Celtic, formed after French celtique, appears a little later, in the mid-17th century. An early attestation is found in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), in reference to the Insular Celts of antiquity: [the Ionian gods ... who] o'er the Celtic [fields] roamed the utmost Isles. (I.520, here in the 1674 spelling). Use of Celtic in the linguistic sense arises in the 18th century, in the work of Edward Lhuyd.(Lhuyd, p. 290) Lhuyd, E. "Archaeologia Britannica; An account of the languages, histories, and customs of the original inhabitants of Great Britain." (reprint ed.) Irish University Press, 1971.
In the 18th century, the interest in "primitivism", which led to the idea of the "noble savage", brought a wave of enthusiasm for all things "Celtic." The antiquarian William Stukeley pictured a race of "ancient Britons" constructing the "temples of the Ancient Celts" such as Stonehenge (actually a pre-Celtic structure). In his 1733 book History of the Temples of the Ancient Celts, he recast the "Celts" "Druids".Laing, Lloyd and Jenifer (1992) Art of the Celts, London, Thames and Hudson James Macpherson's Ossian fables, which he claimed were ancient Scottish Gaelic poems that he had "translated," added to this romantic enthusiasm. The "Irish revival" came after the Catholic Emancipation Act 1829 as a conscious attempt to promote an Irish national identity, which, with its counterparts in other countries, subsequently became known as the "Celtic Revival".
Pronunciation The initial consonant of the English words Celt and Celtic is primarily pronounced and occasionally in both modern British and American English,OED, s.v. "Celt", "Celtic".Merriam-Webster, s.v. "Celt", "Celtic". although was formerly the norm. In the oldest attested Greek form, and originally also in Latin, it was pronounced , but it was subject to a regular process of palatization around the 1st century AD whenever it appeared before a front vowel like ; as the Late Latin of Gaul evolved into French, this palatalised sound became , and then developed to around the end of the Old French era. The pronunciation of Classical Latin was later taken directly into German; both pronunciations were taken into English at different times.
The English word originates in the 17th century. Until the mid-19th century, the sole pronunciation in English was , in keeping with the inheritance of the letter ⟨c⟩ from Old French to Middle English. From the mid-19th century onward, academic publications advocated the variant with on the basis of a new understanding of the word's origins. The pronunciation remained standard throughout the 19th to early 20th century, but gained ground during the later 20th century.MacKillop, J. (1998) Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press A notable exception is that the pronunciation remains the most recognized form when it occurs in the names of sports teams, most notably Celtic Football Club in Scotland, and the Boston Celtics basketball team in the United States. The title of the Cavan newspaper The Anglo-Celt is also pronounced with the .@theanglocelt Twitter feed
Modern uses In current usage, the terms "Celt" and "Celtic" can take several senses depending on context: the Celts of the European Iron Age, the group of Celtic-speaking peoples in historical linguistics, and the modern Celtic identity derived from the Romanticist Celtic Revival.
Linguistic context
After its use by Edward Lhuyd in 1707,(Lhuyd, p. 290) Lhuyd, E. (1971) Archaeologia Britannica; An account of the languages, histories, and customs of the original inhabitants of Great Britain. (reprint ed.) Irish University Press, the use of the word "Celtic" as an umbrella term for the pre-Roman peoples of the British Isles gained considerable popularity. Lhuyd was the first to recognise that the Irish, British, and Gaulish languages were related to one another, and the inclusion of the Insular Celts under the term "Celtic" from this time forward expresses this linguistic relationship. By the late 18th century, the Celtic languages were recognised as one branch within the larger Indo-European family.
Historiographical context
The Celts are an ethnolinguistic group of Iron Age European peoples, including the Gauls (including subgroups such as the Lepontii and the Galatians), Celtiberians, and Insular Celts.