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Why does 腰抜け mean coward?

I see 腰 (waist) + 抜 (missing/losing) = 腰抜け (coward), but I fail to see how
they add up.
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2012-05-28T06:21:14.077
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words
Why does 腰抜け mean coward?
I see two possible meanings for this character combination:

It's gonna sound a little gross, but the two ideographs tell me exactly what a
coward is doing. When scared, most people have the [fight or flight
response](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight-or-flight_response). The body's
natural reaction, to make flight (read: running away) easier is to make itself
lighter. This is done by emptying itself. that's as detailed as I'll get, you
can read more on what this means on the wiki article I linked.

Most people who are seen as cowards will run away from their problems, or from
scary things. This might be a reason why these two characters might go
together to give the compound idea of a coward. As in "A coward is someone
whose waist extracts (the contents of itself) when trouble is around" <\- I
made that up, it's not a quote from anything (that I know of).

The other possible reason for these two characters being used together might
be less likely, but it's still possible.

What used to happen to cowards and people who betrayed their
masters/superiors/lords? They would be forced to commit Seppuku. Seppuku
requires that the belly (just above the waist) of the coward/betrayer be
opened (or emptied) and their head removed, then the head is severed. Maybe
the first act of Seppuku is referenced in this character combination.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the removal of the head during the
act of committing Seppuku is to save the person from too much pain, and bring
a swift death. I can't remember where I read it, though. I'm sure it was
either in one of my Japanese history texts or in Book of Five Rings/Bushido,
but I could be wrong. anyway, that's a side note.

Again, this is just conjecture and guess work on my part. Mainly, these
guesses are based on what I think the though process behind the creation/first
use of the phrase may have been.

I'm sorry that I can't link to any definitive proof. I just thought that I
would share my two cents on the OP.
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2012-05-28T08:42:11.623
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Looking at the [Daijisen
definition](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E8%85%B0%E6%8A%9C%E3%81%91&dtype=0&dname=0na&stype=0&pagenum=1&index=06536900),
it seems to mean in the first definition "losing the strength of the
back/waist and becoming unable to stand", and probably from that in the second
definition "lacking guts"/"coward".

I would say from this that `腰抜け` might be very close to the English
expressions ["spineless"](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spineless),
["no spine"](http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/no+spine.html),
"lacking spine" etc for a similar reason.
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2012-05-28T09:23:27.480
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2012-05-28T09:57:48.843
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An upright posture is symbolic of strength and bravery. Being able to resist
being forced into other postures such as being forced to bow or kneel to
another requires 腰.
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2012-05-28T09:57:00.990
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