Baltic *gud3-

Once upon a time Piotr and I discussed the Baltic root *gud- (or,
more precisely, one of the omonymic roots), found in toponymy,
ethnonymy and a number of common (apellative) names. Piotr's
suggested meaning was rather botanical ('bush' etc), mine -
eventually from an ethnicon meaning 'Goth'. But what we both agreed
upon was that this Baltic substrate root probably underlies the
etymology of Gdan'sk (< Baltic *gud-a:n-iSk- with a good real
parallel in Lithuanian toponymy - eg, Gudonis^ke.s, a village near
Vilnius).

Interestingly enough, Maz^iulis in his 'Prussian Etymological
Dictionary' suggests one more semantics for this root (separating it
from 'botanical' *gud2- attested in Prussian gude): 'barbar
(ian)', 'of those speaking gud-gud' (cf. Lith. gudu'oti 'babble',
also - typologically - Russ. gundo'sit' 'to speak through the nose,
babble').

Sergei