 Celt is a modern English word, first attested in 1707, in the writing of Edward Lhuyd, whose work, along with that of other late 17th-century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages and history of the early Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain.The English form Gaul (first recorded in the 17th century) and Gaulish come from the French "Gaule" and "Gaulois", a borrowing from Frankish "*Walholant", "Roman land" (see Gaul