- in India, China, etc., an unskilled native laborer: chiefly historical
- Informal any person doing hard or menial work for little pay
Origin of coolie
Hindi qul?, hired servant, probably from kol?, name of a tribe or caste of Gujaratcoolie
coo·lieWebster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"coolie." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Coolie>.
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coolie. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Coolie
coolie
also coo·ly
noun
pl. coo·lies OffensiveAn unskilled Asian laborer.
Origin of coolie
Hindi qulī laborer perhaps ultimately from Kulī a tribe in GujaratTHE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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Cite this page
MLA Style
"coolie." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Coolie>.
APA Style
coolie. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Coolie
Noun
(plural coolies)
- (offensive, slang) 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.
- (offensive, slang, Trinidad, West Indies, Guyana and parts of Africa) A person of Indian descent.
Origin
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.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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Cite this page
MLA Style
"coolie." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 February 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Coolie>.
APA Style
coolie. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Coolie
