PIE *dom- 'household' (was Re: Gimbutas)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "cafaristeir" <cafaristeir@...> wrote:

>
> Well, but it is quite possible that the "physical" concept "the house = what is put up" got a more abstract meaning "those who dwell in a house = family". We see that in French where "maison" can apply to a dynasty reigning over a country. Ex: "la maison de France" = "the dynasty of the Bourbons"
>

Yes, and this also happens in other Romance languages (e.g. Spanish and Catalan) with the word casa 'house' and English house. But I'm afraid the situation in IE is very different, where we've got two different roots *demH2- 'to build' and *dom- 'household' (not 'house'), although a similar semantical drift certainly happened in Greek, as Beneviste explains very well.

> A compound like *d�mH2pedom = "house floor" shows the original meaning of *d�mH2-, that I interpret as similar to the French verb "dresser" which can both mean "to put up" (ex: a pillar) and "to tame".
>

Once again, you're extrapolating to PIE something what happened in French. To say the least, this is very dangerous, but I have to admit that it's still possible for PIE *domH2- 'to tame' to be a SPECIALIZATION of *demH2- 'to build' instead of being homonymous.