coolie
An unskilled Asian worker, usually of Chinese or Indian descent; a labourer; a porter.
Definitions
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.
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(Trinidad, West Indies, Guyana, Jamaica, Fiji, South Africa, _, and other parts of Africa, ethnic slur) An Indian or a person of Indian descent.
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(South Africa, dated, now, offensive) Either of two festivals associated with Indians (in the sense of pre-partition, colonial India).
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An Indian and South Asian term for a labourer or manual worker, used across Hindi, Urdu, and related languages and common in Indian English. The word carries no particular stigma and is the ordinary term for someone who does physical labour. Also used in political and trade union contexts.
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(India, Pakistan) A laborer.
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