Coolie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A laborer who performs hard, menial work often under poor conditions, traditionally referring to Asian manual workers in historical contexts; a derogatory term used in some regions to describe low-wage or unskilled workers; historically, a person contracted to work in agriculture, construction, or transport for minimal pay
2. A term for a manual worker engaged in physically demanding, low-status jobs primarily in Asia; sometimes used pejoratively to denote unskilled laborers; historically associated with indentured servitude in colonial or migrant labor contexts
3. Refers to individuals performing strenuous, low-paid labor, mainly in South or East Asia; used disparagingly to describe unskilled workers; historically denotes contract workers in harsh conditions in various industries like plantations or railroads

Etymology: Coolie came into English through the British colonies of South Asia and China, where it described hired manual laborers, often moving cargo, carrying loads, or doing the heaviest unskilled work. Its roots run through Hindustani, where "qulī" meant a hired laborer, and further back to Chagatai "quli," meaning servant or even slave. That older sense of servitude is the thread that connects the word's earliest uses to its later meaning. The word's exact origin is contested. One theory links it to the Koli, a Gujarati tribe or caste, and related forms appear in Bengali and Tamil, where "kūli" meant daily hire. Its meaning was also shaped by overlapping words in other languages, including Persian "kūl," meaning shoulder, the part on which goods were hauled. Chinese "kǔlì," meaning hard labor, may have been influenced by these forms and may in turn have fed back into English.

Synonyms: laborer, porter, carrier, worker, manual worker

Antonyms: employer, manager, boss