A spineless person is said to be, "without moral force, resolution, or courage; feeble" – http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spineless. So they are cowardly. But where did that term come from? Are creatures without spines such as worms or squids inherently without courage?
Learn English – Where did “Spineless” come from
etymology
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What you are hearing is most likely the correct Greek pronunciation of Elláda (Ελλάδα). This is the modern Greek word for the name of their country, ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek Hellás (Ἑλλάς).
The English name for the country, "Greece", derives from the Latin name "Graecia". Wiktionary gives a fairly full etymology:
From Latin Graecia < Ancient Greek Γραικός (Graikos), a character in Greek mythology, the son of Thessalos, the king of Fthia, from whom Ἑλλάς (Hellas, “Greece”) and Ἕλληνες (Hellenes, “the Greeks”) got their names.
Although this entry explains the etymology of the name "Greece", it is admittedly slightly confusing about the etymology of "Hellas". This page gives a hypothetical etymology:
Etymology: From Ancient Greek (Hellas "Greece"), from prefix - (el-ελ "sun, bright, shiny", (elios, "sun")) + (las-λας "rock, stone"). : "The land of the sun and the rock".
I would not however want to comment on the veracity of this source. All that is known for sure is that Hellas originally referred to a small area within Ancient Greece and only later came to refer to all Greece. This Yahoo answer gives some handy details.
Edit: found the citation from 1672, from Andrew Marvell’s The Rehearsal Transpros'd:
Two or three brawny Fellows in a Corner, with meer Ink and Elbow-grease, do more Harm than an Hundred systematical Divines with their sweaty Preaching.
It's also defined in B.E.'s A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, in its several tribes, of gypsies, beggers, thieves, cheats, &c. with an addition of some proverbs, phrases, figurative speeches, &c., c.1698:
Elbow-greaſe, a deriſory term for Sweat. It will coſt nothing but a little Elbow-grease ; in a jeer to one that is lazy, and thinks much of his Labour.
I found no earlier mentions than senderle, but here are some useful references. These are the earliest references I could find, and helpfully, they are also dictionary definitions.
The Online Etymology Dictionary says
Phrase elbow grease "hard rubbing" is attested from 1670s, from jocular sense of "the best substance for polishing furniture."
There's a similarly colourful definition in Francis Grose's 1785 A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:
ELBOW GREASE, labour, elbow grease will make an oak table shine.
(The rest of this dictionary is interesting too!)
Also, very pertinent to the question, here's The Royal Dictionary, French and English, and English and French by Abel Boyer in 1729:
Elbow-grease, (or Pains) Rude travail.
Rude travail is French for rough work. There's no entry for "l'huile de coude" in the French side.
And in John S. Farmer and W.E. Henley's 1905 A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English:
Elbow-grease. Energetic and continuous manual labour : e.g. Elbow-grease is the best furniture oil : Fr., huile de bras or de poignet ; du foulage (1779).
French huile de bras or de poignet is oil of the arm, wrist which is quite close. I think du foulage is fulling, the manual scouring and milling of cloth.
The earliest French reference I could "l'huile de coude" helpfully explains the term. In Jean Humbert's 1852 Nouveau Glossaire Genevois: Volume 1 (New Geneva Glossary):
Dans le langage badin des domestiques et des maîtresses, l'huile de coude, c'est le frottage, c'est-à-dire : Le travail de la servante qui frotte. Ces meubles, Madame, ne veulent pas devenir brillants. — C'est que, ma mie, tu y as sans doute économisé l'huile de coude; c'est-à-dire : Tu as trop ménagé ton bras et tes forces.
A rough translation:
In the playful language of servants and masters, elbow grease is rubbing, i.e. the work of the maid who scrubs. This furniture, Madam, does not want to shine. - My dear, that is because you have undoubtedly skimped on the elbow grease. In other words, you have conserved both your arm and your strength.
These references also suggest that "l'huile de coude" is an anglicisme.
Best Answer
As Dan Bron's comment above suggests, there is a tradition (in English, at least) of associating such heroic virtues as standing tall, standing firm, and standing up for oneself (or for what is right) with having a backbone (that is, vertebrae or a spine).
Also traditionally, assuming the appropriate posture of a supplicant—whether on a battlefield or in a king's court or (metaphorically) in any other situation—involves bowing down or lying prostrate before the victor or superior person from whom the supplicant is seeking mercy or asking a favor.
It seems likely that someone long ago noticed that the posture of submission is one in which, physically, the spine plays very little role—and this insight, I imagine, encouraged the figurative relationship between spinelessness and lack of courage, fortitude, resolution, etc.
But this connection, I think, is strictly concerned with differences between perceived types of human beings—between those who metaphorically as well as in reality possess spines (and who, as a result, can stand upright on their own two feet) and those who metaphorically lack them (and who, as a result, cannot). I doubt that the figure of speech was influenced in any meaningful way by consideration of whether hornets, for example, are braver or more craven than field mice.