Celt (tool)

In archaeology, a celt is a long, thin, prehistoric, stone or bronze tool similar to an adze, hoe, or axe.
A shoe-last celt was a polished stone tool used during the early European Neolithic for felling trees and woodworking.

Etymology

The term "celt" seems to have come about from a copyist's error in many medieval manuscript copies of Job 19:24 in the Latin Vulgate Bible, which became enshrined in the authoritative Sixto-Clementine printed edition of 1592. Where all earlier versions have vel certe, the Sixto-Clementine has vel celte. The Hebrew has לעד at this point, which means 'forever'. The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary " to the belief that celtis was a phantom word", simply a misspelling of certe. However, some scholars over the years have treated celtis as a real Latin word.
From the context of Job 19:24, the Latin word celte was assumed to be some kind of ancient chisel. Eighteenth-century antiquarians, such as, adopted the word for the stone and bronze tools they were finding at prehistoric sites; the OED suggests that a "fancied etymological connexion" with the prehistoric Celts assisted its passage into common use.