This is a hollow root: the middle letter ו is a vowel that hides when the word is built. The core image is to dwell, to settle in a place. From that single act the family branches in two directions: outward into the place you live (a flat, a fire to gather around) and across time into a generation, the circle of people dwelling together in one age. The postman, oddly, belongs here too: he goes round from dwelling to dwelling. Every word is verified against pealim, niqqud included.
The same root runs through the verb system. Each binyan is a voice: it bends the one idea into active, passive, causative or reciprocal. Tap to hear.
Only the simple pa'al is lexicalized here, and even it is fairly literary; everyday Hebrew prefers לָגוּר (root ג-ו-ר) for "to live somewhere". The other binyanim are not built for this root, so the family grows almost entirely through nouns.
Same root letters, different noun moulds (mishkalim). The mould tells you the function: who does it, the act of doing it, or the thing produced.
Strip the prefixes, suffixes and vowels. Three consonants remain, and the meaning lives there.