>> I'll restate my case, for clarity:
>>
>> 1 : *?Leib-prinz, first-born, the crown prince, the formal
> >heir
>> 2 : Erb-prinz , second-born, the heir-on-stand-by,
> >substitute
>> 3+: prince charming, with no obligations, but with xwarena
>>
>> Of course, there ain't no such thing as a ?*Leib-prinz in German.
>> German <leib> is "body; midriff section", ultimately related to
>> <Leben> "life". But Duden has, among other things,
>> Leib-arzt personal physician to the sovereign
>> Leib-garde, -wache personal guard to the the sovereign
>> Leib-eigen serf
>> Isn't it as if as the implicit object of these "professions" there
> >is a sovereign, so that this might have been another sense of <leib>
>> once?
What is more, hehe, is that there are names such as
<Leibbrand(t)>/<Leip(p)rand> (chiefly in Southern regions
of the 'Reich'), as modern variants of the old <Liutprand>.
E.g.:
http://www.cousinconnect.com/p/a/0/s/LEIBBRANDT
(Also cf. Lüppertz, Lübbers, Leiprecht, Leiper(ch)t - for
which I suppose < <liut>+<beracht>.)
(In the examples above, <leib->/<Leib-> simply means:
"belonging to/concerning the body;" hence <Leibgarde>
is verbatim <bodyguard>. And <Leib> is first of all
<the body>; "midriff section" is a secondary meaning.
Cf. the Christian notion <der Leib des Herren>; then <bei
lebendigem Leibe>; <Gefahr für Leib und Leben>; <bleib
mir vom Leib!>; <Leibesübung>; <Leibesvisitation>
"personal/body search" & al. phrases & locutions.
OTOH, <Leib> can be misleading, since it is at the
same time a relic of the older form for __<Leben>__
"life": e.g. <Leibgedinge>=<Leibrente> "life annuity" (in
French <pension viagère>); <Leibgericht>, <Leibgetränk>
- in the latter two <Leib-> means __<Lieblings->__,i.e.
the "preferred" (beloved!) food & drink.)
George