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Inarchaeology, acelt/ˈsɛlt/ is a long, thin,prehistoric, stone orbronze tool similar to anadze,hoe, oraxe.
Ashoe-last celt was a polished stone tool used during the early EuropeanNeolithic for felling trees and woodworking.
The term "celt" seems to have come about from a copyist's error in many medieval manuscript copies ofJob 19:24 in the LatinVulgate Bible, which became enshrined in the authoritativeSixto-Clementine printed edition of 1592. Where all earlier versions[1] (theCodex Amiatinus, for example) havevel certe (the Latin for 'but surely'), the Sixto-Clementine hasvel celte. The Hebrew has לעד (lā‘aḏ) at this point, which means 'forever'. The editors of theOxford English Dictionary "[incline] to the belief thatceltis was a phantom word",[2] simply a misspelling ofcerte. However, some scholars over the years have treatedceltis as a real Latin word.[2][3]
From the context of Job 19:24 ("Oh, that my words were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!"), the Latin wordcelte was assumed to be some kind of ancientchisel. Eighteenth-centuryantiquarians, such asLorenz Beger [de;fr], adopted the word for thestone and bronze tools they were finding at prehistoric sites; theOED suggests that a "fancied etymological connexion"[3] with theprehistoric Celts assisted its passage into common use.