Re: The Scythian Brothers

From: tgpedersen
Message: 29346
Date: 2004-01-10

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, g <george.st@...> wrote:
> >> 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.)
>

All true, but my point was that maybe the Leib- in Leibwache etc is a
forgotten cognate of Northern English dialect <lave> "heir"
(presumably of immobile property, the 'Erbe' would then be mobile
property). Thus, a third meaning.

Torsten