08-05-2010, 02:13 AM
Quote:So why, then, would Caesar say the Gauls called themselves "Celts", if it were not so?
Caesar was right - the called themselves *Celtoi. We even see the root Celt- attested in pre-Roman personal names in Iberia and Gaul, so it was certainly a native word in both Gaulish and Iberian Celtic. The exact etymology is still debated by linguists (some suggest "hidden ones", others "exalted"), but it likely comes from one of the several Proto-Indo-European *kel- roots (with a -t- suffix).
Christopher Gwinn