Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c6.47

c6.47

*Cooly*, in its application to a carrier of burdens, or performer of inferior labour, is another example. The most probable origin of this is from a *nomen gentile*, that of the *Kolis*, a hill-people of Guzerat and the Western Ghats (compare the origin of *slave*). But the matter is perplexed by other facts which it is difficult to connect with this. Thus, in S. India, there is a Tamil word *kūli*, in common use, signifying ‘daily hire or wages,’ which H. H. Wilson regards as the true origin of the word which we call *cooly*. Again, both in Oriental and Osmali Turkish, *kol* is a word for a slave, and in the latter also there is *kūleh*, ‘a male slave, a bondsman.’ *Khol* is, in Tibetan also, a word for a slave or servant.