Name of the Goths

[faltin2001]

Hi all,

you have of course all heard the interpretation of the name of the 
Goths (Gutane) derived from a word meaning 'to pour/flow' with the 
sense of 'those who have been created by the outpouring of semen by a 
god'. I wonder if this is not a little bit far fetched.

Consider the German place name Göttingen (a big and old town in Lower 
Saxony). It is first mentioned with the name Gutinge in AD 953 and 
was also called Gotinge in medieval sources. The interpretation of 
the name is based on an Old Saxon word 'guta' meaning 'stream/flow of 
water'. The modern Eastfalian (the dialect of the Göttingen area) is 
is 'Gôtë' and these words are closely related to modern
German 'Gosse', which means again 'stream or flow of water'. 

Thus, the place name Gutinge (Göttingen) refers to ' the place of
the people at the stream of water'. In fact, some sources even refer
to a Saxon 'sub-tribe' as the Gudinge from the same area. The name of
the Goths has clearly the same linguistic roots and it may have had 
the same development, only that usually the more sophisticated 
interpretation of 'giessen', i.e. to pour or flow is employed to 
arrive at  the meaning of 'the once who were created by the flow of 
semen from a god'. Again, I think this is a bit far fetched and the 
name may simply refer to their settlements at the Vistula river/flow 
Guta. I know this is a little trivial, but since this purely 
descriptive meaning has given rise to Gutinge and the Gudinge people, 
why should it not also have given rise to the Gutane. Or is there any 
good argument that the term Gutane must have to do with the flow of 
semen instead of water?

Cheers,

Dirk







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