Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Offensive An unskilled Asian laborer.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A name given by Europeans in India, China, etc., to a native laborer employed as a burden-carrier, porter, stevedore, etc., or in other menial work: as, a chair-coolie, a housecoolie; hence, in Africa, the West Indies, South America, and other places, an East Indian or Chinese laborer who is employed, under contract, on a plantation or in other work.
- Of or pertaining to coolies or a coolie, especially when under contract for service out of his own country: as, coolie labor; the coolie trade.
Wiktionary
- n. 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.
- n. offensive, slang, West Indies A person of Indian descent.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Same as cooly.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (ethnic slur) an offensive name for an unskilled Asian laborer
Etymologies
- From Hindustani क़ुली / قلی (qulī), which means "hired laborer" or "slave", from Turkish köle. Other forms occur in Bengali kuli and Tamil kuli, "daily hire." The Mandarin word 苦力 (kǔlì), was originally a transcription of the Hindi, and literally means "bitterly hard (use of) strength". (Wiktionary)
- Hindi qulī, laborer, perhaps ultimately from Kulī, a tribe in Gujarat. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The Bihari coolie is be-headed by poor and unemployed Marathi youth for Maratha pride.”
Global Voices in English » Indian Elections 2009: Allegations and Concerns of The Common People
“The last coolie is a partner with a microscopic share.”
“Whole populations there have never known freedom; to such people one master is no worse than another; the lot of the coolie is the same in either case.”
“The favourite waterproof of the coolie is a huge cloak made of rice straw, the long ends sticking out.”
“The coolie is a character, -- patient, hard-working, uncomplaining, supplying a demand throughout the Orient, made necessary, as we have seen, by the indolence of the Burmese and of the Malays, to mention only two examples.”
“There's another frame depicting his country, and in which there are two characters wearing 'coolie' hats.”
The WritingYA Weblog: Life Is Like A Box Of... Butterfly Bars?
“The term "coolie" is a pejorative term refering to usually unskilled laborers from Asia, particularly China and India. . .”
City Council Stands Up To ACLU on Behalf of LAPD and The City
“(Nocsa) president Sam Ramsamy a "coolie" and made a number of racist remarks during the evening.”
“As a prime example of such stereotypes, the National Review magazine ran a cover in March depicting a slanted-eye and "coolie" hatted President, a bucked teeth and Communist-garbed First Lady, and a Buddhist monk-attired Vice President, over the headline "The Manchurian Candidates.”
“I would not take him up country to be bullied and demeaned as a "coolie," and I made for him an arrangement with the proprietor of my hotel that during my absence John should help to wait in his restaurant.”
The Idler Magazine, Vol III. May 1893 An Illustrated Monthly
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘coolie’.
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Humours of Old Bombay
Terms that call to mind British India.
palkee, chee-chee, dorian, Hindoo, dinghee-wallah, garee, hamal, banghy, hookah-bardar, dak, ghat, mussalchee and 133 more...
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EN - xenophobic terms
Alle Menschen werden Brüder - sooner or later? Derogatory terms for anybody different.
abe, anchor baby, ann, ape, apple, asian nigger, aunt jemima , aunt jane, aunt mary, aunt sally, banana, beaner and 315 more...
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Mountaineering
mountaineering terms:
some of these more unusual ones came from the book Nanda Devi: Exploration and Ascentmoraine, cirque, couloir, arete, topee, gendarme, jat, dotial, bhotia, coolies, sahib, bharal and 9 more...
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That's what she said and other spoken...
Once you start saying them, you can't seem to stop.
dude, cha-ching, meep, whatever, wha happen, that's what she said, talk to the hand, really?!, plinth, awesome, seriously?, ridonkulous and 3 more...
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• How to make a worker cry (derogativ...
What?! And I'm supposed to pay for your lousy work, you... you...
dauber, pettifogger, tinker, quill-driver, rhymester, numbnuts, peer, cartophiling, notaphily, speleology, letterboxing, metrophile and 43 more...
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Palanquins
A list of litters and those who bear them.
Benjamin Franklin and other wealthy colonial Americans used sedan chairs until late in the 18th century.dooly, palanquin, hamal, litter, stretcher, palankeen, palkee, sedan, cacolet, mule-chair, kujawah, norimono and 39 more...
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my words
interminable, effete, convocation, philistines, malaise, foibles, deputation, anathematized, morass, stalwart, proselytize, abet and 405 more...
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Clearinghouse
For stuff to simply reside.
calcar, pinion, espadrille, antipodes, peregrine, cormorant, tanager, vireo, farrago, undervest, passerine, oscine and 881 more...
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sartorial splendor
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
-Mark Twainapplique, ascot, brogue, dressing gown, frippery, gusset, grommet, placket, silhouette, whipstitch, appliqué, baste and 59 more...
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thinkcharlene's Big Screen
pulchritudinous, chanteuse, comprador, connubial, coolie, ingenue, kismet, pulchritude, reveille, shamus, superfluous, teetotaller and 12 more...
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the phantom rickshaw
ere, livery, avowal, jhampanies, shale, Waler, solecism, servitor, coolie, wroth, broidery, smother and 6 more...
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Orwell
Words gathered while slogging through Animal Farm and 1984.
appartchik, swinish, scullery, knacker, animalism, spinney, cockerel, slag, coccidiosis, poultice, superannuate, piebald and 26 more...
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English Words Derived from Hindi
Some surprises, at least for me!
pundit, thug, cushy, dungaree, punch, cot, chit, bandana, veranda, cummerbund, parcheesi, dinghy and 22 more...
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Classassin
Class^Warfare$$$$!
arriviste, parvenu, gigmania, dyvoury, thugly, déclassé, stalko, sudden loss of we..., guttersnipe, mesocracy, nouveau riche, bourgeois and 71 more...
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Words which come from Chinese
Tweets
Looking for tweets for coolie.
thinkcharlene The Shanghai Gesture Feb 14, 2007
liu_xing = bitter strength (from Chinese) Jan 22, 2007