Coolie meaning
In India, China, etc., an unskilled native laborer.
noun
An unskilled Asian laborer.
noun
Any person doing hard or menial work for little pay.
noun
(offensive, slang, Trinidad, West Indies, Guyana and parts of Africa) A person of Indian descent.
noun
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Origin of coolie
- Hindi qulī laborer perhaps ultimately from Kulī a tribe in Gujarat
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- From Hindustani क़ुली / قلی (qulī, “hired laborer, slave”), from Turkish köle. Other forms occur in Bengali kuli and Tamil kuli, "daily hire." The Mandarin word 苦力 (kǔlì), meaning "to exert one's abilities; heavy labour work" in Classical Chinese, may have been influenced by cognates of the above Hindi word in other languages and may have further influenced English.
From Wiktionary