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Coolie

//ˈkuːli// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An unskilled Asian worker, usually of Chinese or Indian descent; a labourer; a porter. Coolies were frequently transported to other countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries as indentured labourers.

    "One day when the Man's Wife and the Tertium Quid had just arrived in the Cemetery, they saw some coolies breaking ground."

  2. 2
    (ethnic slur) an offensive name for an unskilled Asian laborer wordnet
  3. 3
    An Indian or a person of Indian descent. Caribbean, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad-and-Tobago, ethnic, slur

    "Well, he and his troops had shown the koefietjies-the little coolies-how quickly and how easily Afrikaner explosive shells could knock it down."

Etymology

From Hindustani क़ुली / قلی (qulī, “hired laborer”), possibly from Ottoman Turkish قول (kul, “servant”). Another theory says that it is named after Gujarati કોળી (koḷī), a Gujarati tribe or caste. Other forms occur in Bengali কুলি (kuli) and Tamil கூலி (kūli, “daily hire”). Possibly also influenced by Hindustani کولی (kolī) / कोली (kolī, “weaver; low-class”). In Kurdish Koile (کۆیلە) and Quli (قولى): Slave, Servant. Kawli (Keweli): Low-Class, Gypsy. Mandarin 苦力 (kǔlì, “hard labor”) may have been influenced by cognates of the above Hindi word in other languages and may have further influenced English.

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