PIE *dom- 'household'

PIE *dom- 'household' (e.g. Latin domus) is a noun-root whose genitive form *dem-s- is attested in the compound *dem-s-pot- 'master of the house' > Greek despótēs. Many Indo-Europeanists like Mallory-Adams consider it to be derivated from *dem(h2)- 'to build', a root only attested in Greek (e.g. démō 'to build',  dómos, dõ:ma 'house') and Germanic (e.g. English timber). 

A part of the problem is that, unlike French, English doesn't make a clear distinction between the concepts of 'house' as a building (French maison) and 'household' as a dwelling place (French demeure). This explains why French linguists Émile Beneviste¹ and Pierre Chantraine² think that PIE *dom- refers to the latter rather than the former.

IMHO, this suggests the original meaning was 'to remain, to live', thus linking it with Proto-Afrasian *dam- 'to live, to last, to sit', which AFAIK has no Eurasiatic correspondences.

In terms of linguistic archaeology, this points to the Neolithic, when (pre-)IE-speaking hunterer-gatherers learned farming techniques and thus became sedentary. By contrast, Afrasian speakers (mostly nomadic pastoralists) had a different lifestyle and didn't develop the household institution.
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¹ Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européenes, vol. I, pp. 293-307.
² Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, pp. 292-293.

Latin pariēs 'wall'

Although some Indo-Europanists link it to Proto-Germanic *spar(r)e:n, *sparrio:n 'stake, beam', Latin pariēs 'wall' has no inherited PIE etymology. But IMHO it can be considered as a substrate loanword from PIE *Hwer- 'to close, to cover' (usually with various suffixes), a root from which I'd also derive Romance barra 'bar, barrier' and *berruculu- (Spanish berrojo, Gascon berrolh) 'a wooden or iron bar or bolt placed across gates on the inside'¹.

This would be a PIE B root corresponding to Proto-Altaic *t`jù:ru 'to hold, to obstruct' and PIE A *twerH- 'to keep, to hold, to fence', found in Balto-Slavic and also the source of Latin obtūrō 'to block, to stop up' and Romance *at-tūrō 'to stop'. 
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¹ Which Coromines thinks it was an alteration (possibly by contamination with ferrum 'iron') of Latin verūculum, diminutive form of verūs 'roasting spit' < PIE *g^wer(H)-u-.

Initial labials in Basque

Unlike what we've seen in last post, the native result of Latin and Romance f- in Basque is /p/, lenied to /b/ in the standard variety at word-initial: 

Latin fāgu- 'beech' > romance *fago > Basque pago, bago id. (but also fago)

Latin fīcu- 'fig' > Romance *fīco > Basque p(h)iko, biku id. (but also fiko, fiku)

Germanic *fīlō 'file' > Spanish filosa 'sword, knife' > Basque piruxe 'scissors'
Latin fīlu- 'thread' > Basque p(h)iru, biru id. (but also firu)
Latin fōnte- 'source, spring' > Basque ponte, ponde 'baptismal font' 

Latin fōrma- 'mould' > Basque borma 'wall'

Latin fortia- 'strength' > Romance *fortsa >  Basque bortxa 'force, violence'
Latin fortis 'strong' > Basque portitz, bortitz 'hard, strong'
Romance *freca 'stroke' > Basque p(h)ereka id. (but also fereka)  

Latin fronte- 'forehead' > Basque boronde, boronte id.
Latin furca- 'pitchfork' > Basque urka 'pitchfork, gallows'

Also *w from Latin v- (and in some cases also b-) became /p/:

Latin bēstia- 'animal' > Basque piztia, pisti(a) 'beast, pest'
Latin brāca- 'trousers' > Basque prakak (plural)  'trousers' (but also frakak)
Latin gaudiu- 'joy' > Romance *got^s [wot^s]¹ > Basque poz, bo(t)z 'joy, happiness'
Latin vēsīca- 'urine bladder; blister' > Basque pu(t)xika 'urine bladder'
Latin viride- 'green' > Romance verde> Basque p(h)erde, berde id. (but also ferde)
Latin voluntāte- 'will, desire' > Basque borondate, boront(h)ate id.
Latin vulture- > Romance *wutre² > Basque putre id. (but also futre)

By contrast, a minoritary set of words has a nasal /m/ instead:

Celtic *bakko- 'hook, (curved) stick' > Basque mako 'hook; pitchfork, prong; walking-stick, shepherd's staff', mak(h)ila, mak(h)illa 'stick' (diminutive)
Romance barca 'boat' > Basque marka id.
Late Latin persica- 'peach' > Basque mertxika 'apricot, peach' 
Latin pīca- 'magpie' > Basque mika id.
Latin portu- '(mountain) pass' > Basque mortu, maurtu 'desert' (but also portu)
Latin vāgīna- 'sheath' > Basque magina, magiña 'sheath, pod'
Latin vascellu- 'little glass' > Basque maskelu, maskillo 'little cauldron'

Even more oddly, in some dialectal words the initial labial becomes a dental /d/ (/l/ in the standard variety):

Romance banca 'small bench' > Basque lanka, lanke id.
Romance *pendiolu- 'hanging'³ > Basque dindullu 'earrings'
Latin verberāre 'to whip, to hit, to beat' > Basque dirdira 'sunshine reflection'
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¹ Spanish gozo < *got^so.
² Asturian utre &lt.
³ Catalan penjoll.

Initial pl-,fl- in Basque

As it's well known, Basque abhors "muta cum liquida" clusters and thus we've got boronde, boronte < Latin fronte- and p(h)ereka, fereka 'stroke' from Romance *freca < Latin fricāre 'to rub'. 

There's however a number of words where Latin pl-, fl- have given Basque l-: 

Latin plācet 'it pleases' > Basque laket 'pleasure'

Latin plānu- 'flat' > Basque lau(n), leu(n), legun 'flat, smooth'
Latin plūma- 'feather' > Basque luma id.

Latin flamma- 'flame, fire' > Basque lama 'flame, heat'
Latin flore- 'flower' > Basque lore id.

The evolution fl- > l-¹ can also be found in Spanish words such as lacio < *flaccidu- 'flacid' and the personal name Laín < Flavinus. IMHO this could be explained if these labials were realized as a voiceless bilabial fricative [φ] like in Proto-Celtic², where IE *pl- became *φl- and later l- in Celtic languages. Of course, we should expect the same evolution in genuine Celtic loanwords in Basque³:

Celtic *φlāro- 'floor' > Basque larre 'meadow'

Celtic *φletro- 'hide, leather' > Basque larru, narru 'skin'

IMHO, the realization of /f/ as [φ] (which in fact is the usual pronounciation in most of Northern Spain (also including Basque-speaking areas) would explain the aspiration of Latin f- as h- in Gascon and Spanish⁴.  

In Basque, this consonant disappears at word-initial, mostly before back vowels, where also /p/was realized as [φ]:

Romance *fīco 'fig' [φiko] > Basque iko id.

Latin fīlu- 'thread' [φilu] > Basque iru id.
Romance *fondo 'bottom' [φondo] > Basque ondo 'side, bottom' 
Romance *fongo 'fungus' [φongo] > Basque onddo 'mushroom'
Latin fōrma- 'mould' [φorma] > Basque horma, orma 'wall'
Latin frāga- 'strawberry' [φ(a)raga] > Basque arraga, araga id.⁵
Romance pollo 'chicken' [φoλo] > Basque oilo 'hen'
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¹ However, in most words the cluster fl- became assimilated to pl-, then palatalized in Spanish and Portuguese, as in flamma- > Spanish llama, Portuguese chama. 
² In Proto-Celtic, PIE *p became a voiceless bilabial fricative *φ (then lost in the daughter Celtic languages) at word-initial and intervocally, but *b in other contexts.
³ In fact, there's ample evidence of Celtic toponymy in the Westernmost part of the Basque country, suggesting the area was previously inhabited by Celtic speakers. 

⁴ Unlike Gascon, Spanish never aspirates clusters fl-, fr- (see note 1). Also Castilian alone doesn't aspirate f- when followed by /w/ (resulting from diphtongation of Latin short /o/), hence fonte- > fuente. However, this doesn't happen in Cantabrian and Eastern Asturian varieties, where we find /xwénte/ instead.

⁵ In the variant arraga, [φr] evolved to a trill [rr], which then adquired a prothetic vowel. Compare Gascon ahraga. 

Dwellings

Latin colō 'to inhabit, to dwell' (hence in-cola 'inhabitant', in-quil-īnus 'tenant') is derived by Indo-Europeanists from PIE *k^wel- 'to turn', assuming the original meaning was 'to turn up soil'. However, this explanation strikes me as a bad one, so I searched for a better etymology.

I see here a PIE A root *k^wel- 'to dwell' (homonymous with the above one) cognate to PAltaic *gù:lí 'dwelling, cottage'.  This is in turn related to PNC *qəlV 'house, hut', which gives also Kartvelian *xl- 'to dwell' (hence *sa-xl- 'house' and PIE B *sel- 'dwelling, settlement' (Latin solum, PGermanic *sala-), an instance of Fournet's Law¹.

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¹ See my earlier post for more information.

A Semitic 'horse' Wanderwort

According to standard etymological dictionaries (e.g. Kluge's), High German Pferd 'horse' (formerly 'post horse') is an early loanword from Late Latin paraverēdus 'post horse'. This is derivated from verēdus¹, a Celtic (Gallic) loanword *uerēdos < *uɸo-rēdos (e.g. Cymru gorwydd 'horse'), a deverbal noun from *uɸo-rēd- 'to travel fast', a compound verb from *uɸo- 'under' and *rēd- 'to ride'².

However, IMHO this etymology is phonetically implausible, as it would need a huge haplology (syllable collapse) to explain the German word. Taking into account the High German consonant shift and the Dutch cognate paard, the protoform would be *perd-, which I consider a Wanderwort from Semitic *pVrd/parad^ʕ/z-) 'an equid'.  

A similar root *bVrdʕ/barz/dʕ- 'mule, horse' would be the origin of Late Latin burdus 'mule' and būr(r)icus 'donkey, small horse' (a diminutive form which suggests an assimilated variant *burrus). 
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¹ Interestingly enough, Latin verēdus was borrowed (through Greek béraidos, beredos) into Arabic barīd- 'express, courier' and similar forms in other Semitic languages, thus contributing to the widespread confusion about these roots.

² Delamarre (2008): Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise, p. 314.

A confusion of rhotics

Most personal names and theonyms found in Latin inscriptions from the old region of Aquitaine correspond to an early form of Basque commonly referred as Proto-Basque by Vascologists. However, some of these names have been wrongly interpreted due to an imperfect reading of rhotics: while the flap /r/ <r> is usually written as RH, the trill /ŕ/ <rr> can be either R or RR. Thus reading R as /r/ instead of the actual /ŕ/ is a mistake many Vascologists have made.

For example, the Aquitanian theonym HERAVSCORRITSEHE, usually interpreted as containing a first member herauś corresponding to modern Basque herauts 'boar', but this is inexact. Firstly, this word is actually one of the variants of a word *enauś(i), *inauś(i) whose meaning is 'heat of sow' or 'sow/female boar in heat' and whose modern forms¹ display two alternative results from a former *n². The correct reading is heŕaus, which corresponds to modern Basque errauts 'ash' (a compound of erre 'to burn' and hauts 'dust')³.

Another example is the anthroponym LAVRCO, whose first element⁴ is commonly interpreted as the numeral lau(r) '4' (with a flap /r/), when it's actually lauŕ (with a trill /ŕ/). This corresponds to modern Basque labur 'short'⁵, so in this case the Aquitanian form corresponds to Iberian and not to Proto-Basque⁶. 
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¹ herause, eresu, (h)erüsi, heusi, iñaus, iraus, i(h)ausi, irausi, irusi.

² According to our own interpretation, the regular shift -n- > -0- in Basque (as well as in Gascon and Portuguese) is consequence of an adstrate influence, while the comparatively rare -n- > -r- is part of its own Iberian pedigree.

³ This was first proposed by Hugo  Schuchardt.
⁴ Also found in Iberian anthroponyms. The second element is the diminutive suffix -ko.
⁵ The form laur is only found in the Baztanese dialect.
⁶ Iberian has *bu > u while Basque has *bo > o.

A bad purchase

Latin emō 'to buy' is an output of IE *H1em- 'to take, to distribute', a root also found in Celtic and Balto-Slavic. The "laryngeal" *H1 is reconstructed to account for initial i- in Balto-Slavic (Lithuanian imù, Old Church Slavonic imǫ). However, given its scarce attestation, the likelihood of this being a non-native IE root is high.

In his own blog, Glen Gordon proposes this root to be a recent (early 1st millennium BCE) borrowing from a supposed Etrusco-Rhaetic [sic] verb *em 'to take', which apparently appears as -em in Etruscan numerals like ci-em zaθrum '17', literally '3 from 20', much like Latin duo-de-viginti '18', lit. '2 from 20'. 

Unfortunately, Gordon confuses what is clearly a postposition with a verb, and for making his point stronger, he notices two instances of the presumed past form *em-e in the scriptio continua nacemeuruiθalθileniθaliχememesnamertanśinamulu (TLE 366). Unfortunately, he doesn't give us a proper segmentation of the whole inscription.

Given the inadequacy of this proposal, we must find a better one. A Vasco-Caucasian loanword from PNC *HVqqVn- (˜ -m-) 'to take, to snatch', which gives Basque k(h)en-du 'to take away; to ask for a price' (Bengtson) and also Etruscan cen- 'to get, to buy', whose participle cen-u 'got, bought' is found in some inscriptions (Perugia Cippus, Tabula Cortonensis), seems likely.

A note to readers (caveat emptor): don't buy crackpot theories.