coolie

Meaning

Noun

• 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.
• An Indian or a person of Indian descent.

Origin

• From Hindi क़ुली and Urdu قلی ("hired laborer"), possibly from Ottoman Turkish قول. Another theory says that it is named after a Gujarati tribe or caste of that name. Other forms occur in Bengali কুলি and Tamil கூலி ("daily hire"). Possibly also influenced by Hindi कोली ("weaver; low-class").
• Mandarin 苦力 may have been influenced by cognates of the above Hindi word in other languages and may have further influenced English.