Forms: 6 pl. colles, 7 collee, (cowler), 7–8 coulee, -ie, coly, 7–9 coolee, 8 couley, 8–9 cooley, 7– coolie, cooly. [Now found (in sense 2) in the Indian vernaculars generally: Urdū qulī, qūlī, Bengālī kūlī, Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, Malayālam, kūli; of disputed origin.
By some considered to be originally Tamil, and identical with the word kūli ‘hire, payment for occasional menial work,’ whence (either by metonymy, or as short for kūli-kāram ‘hire-man,’ kūliyāl ‘hire person’) kūli ‘hireling, labourer, man who does odd jobs.’ The objection to this is that the first-known mention of Coolies early in the 17th c. refers not to the Tamil country, in the south, but to the region of Guzerat, in the west of India. On this account there is reason to think the word identical with Kūlī or Kolī, the name of an aboriginal tribe of Guzerat (see sense 1), which is actually found spelt Koulli, Coolie in the middle of the 17th c.
(The Kulīs of Guzerat were well known to the Portuguese in the 16th c.; and these probably carried the name both to Southern India and to China (cf. 1745 in 2). It is probable that the similarity between Kulī and the Tamil word kūli ‘hire’ may have led to the use of coolie in Southern India in the sense of kūli-kāram or kuliyāl.)]
† 1. A variant of Kulī or Kolī, name of a numerous aboriginal tribe of Guzerat, formerly noted as robbers, but now settling down as respectable laborers and cultivators. Obs.
[1554. Botelho, Estado da India, in Subsidios (Lisb., 1878), V. 155. E a Renda dos coles que são pescadores ás estaquados ao mar, e per este Rio de Baçaím. transl. And the rent from the colés who are fishers at the stakes at the sea, and along this river of Bassein.
1563. Garcia de Orta, Colloquios (Lisb., 1872), 34. Colles.]
1598. trans. Linschoten’s Voyages, xxvii. (Y.). Others that yet dwell within the countrie called Colles: which Colles … doe yet live by robbing and stealing.
1609. W. Finch, Jrnl., in Purchas, Pilgrims (1625), I. IV. iv. § 6. 436. A certain Raiaw [of] … the people called Collees or Quullees, keeping in a Desart Wildernesse, which secures him from Conquest.
1616–22. Terry, Voy. E. Ind. (1655), 192. Those who inhabit the Countrey Villages are called Coolies; these till the ground and breed up Cattel, and other things for provision as Hennes, [etc.].
1630. Lord, Banians, 85. The husbandmen or inferior sort of people, called the Coulees.
1677. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 4), 75. To live a while in Gusurat … to extirpate that rascal-race of Coolyes and Bielsgrates.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 164 (Y.). The inhabitants of Ramnagur are the Salvages called Coolies.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xiii. 143. The Rasspouts and Coulies make Inroads into this Province [Cambay], and plunder even to the Gates of the City.
1820. Trans. Lit. Soc. Bombay, III. 355 (Y.). In the profession of thieving the Koolees may be said to act con amore.
1825. Heber, Journey (1828), II. 556. A Kholee, the name of a degenerate race of Rajpoots in Guzerât, who, from the low occupations in which they are generally employed, have (under the corrupt name of Coolie) given a name … to bearers of burthens all over India.
1856. A. K. Forbes, trans. Râs Mâlâ, I. 103. The Koolees lived for a long time on the sea-shore, in the neighbourhood of the Indus. Ibid., 104. The Bheels and Koolees lived in security.
1885. Imp. Gaz. India, III. 51, s.v. Bombay, The aboriginal race of Kulīs is rapidly rising in the scale of civilization.
2. The name given by Europeans in India and China to a native hired laborer or burden-carrier; also used in other countries where these men are employed as cheap laborers.
1638. W. Bruton in Hakluyt, Voy. (1807), V. 49 (Y.). He lent us horses to ride on, and Cowlers (which are Porters) to carry our goods.
1680. in J. T. Wheeler, Madras (1861), I. 129 (Y.). That the drum be beat to call all coolies, carpenters, [etc.].
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., in Phil. Trans., XX. 344. At which his Coolyes were afrightned.
1704. Collect. Voy. (Church.) III. 740/1. 500 Colys or Labourers.
1745. P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 271. We employ’d … many Chinese Labourers, whom they call Cooly’s, to make the Chinam.
1763. Orme, Milit. Trans. Indostan (1861), I. I. 79. Coolies a cast of Indians whose sole occupation is to carry burthens.
1775. Ann. Reg., 132. Made use of by the natives of Golconda as coolys or slaves in the mines.
1799. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. I. 55. An order … stating the number of Coolies which an officer may call for from a village.
1826. W. Elliott, The Nun, 100, note. Coolee means a porter, but is often used reproachfully to other servants of superior rank.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon (ed. 2), II. 235. The number of Malabar coolies employed.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, II. 55. A kidnapper of coolies or the captain of a slaver.
3. slang. (See quot.)
1803. R. Percival, in Naval Chron., X. 31. A Cooly, or common fellow of the lowest class.
1873. Slang Dict., Coolie, a soldier, in allusion to the Hindoo coolies, or day labourers.
4. attrib. and Comb., as coolie boy, emigrant; coolie labour, system, traffic; coolie-catcher.
c. 1813. Mrs. Sherwood, Stories Ch. Catech., xxi. 200. Shall I tell the coolie boy to run after him?
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., I. iii. (1876), 92. Coolie-traffic can never be carried on by private enterprise.
1865. Daily Tel., 24 Oct., 4/6. A ship … started from Calcutta with four hundred coolie emigrants.
1879. Constit. California, art. xix. § 4, in Bryce, Amer. Commw. (1888), II. App. 678. Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery, and is for ever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labour shall be void.
1890. Times (weekly ed.), 21 Feb., 10/4. The Chinese agents employed to collect the coolies, and known as ‘coolie-catchers.’
