coolie

Borrowed from Hindustani qulī ("hired laborer"), which traces back through Chagatai quli ("servant, slave") to Proto-Turkic *kul. A rival theory ties it instead to the Koḷī, a Gujarati tribe or caste, and similar forms appear in Bengali kuli and Tamil kūli ("daily hire").

The word may also have been shaped by Hindustani kolī ("weaver; low-class") or Persian kūl ("shoulder," as in the shoulder that hauls goods), pulling together threads of servitude, caste, and manual labor into one term. Mandarin kǔlì ("hard labor") sits nearby in meaning and may have both influenced and been influenced by this same word family.

Mandarin kǔlì, meaning "hard labor," is close enough in sound and sense that the two words likely shaped each other as they crossed paths in trade and migration.