koelie, noun

/ˈkʊli//ˈkuli/
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, adaptation of coolie.
derogatory, offensive
1. coolie sense 1. Also attributive.
1956 D. Jacobson Dance in Sun 26The kaffirs and the koelies will know their places.
1959 L. Lerner Englishman 220It was his girl the other one took, the one who slept with koelies.
1959 L. Lerner Englishman 226You won’t, you koelie girl.
1959 J.A.L. Basson in Hansard 16 Apr. 4076I hope he will..reproach the Minister of Labour who..referred to Mrs Nehru as a ‘koelie-meid’.
1963 D. Jacobson Through Wilderness (1977) 85All Lipi’s neighbours in the street were Afrikaner railwaymen or mineworkers; and their children sometimes shouted ‘Koelie-Jood’ after him — Koelie being an insulting term for an Indian, and thus being a disdainful way of referring to Lipi’s trade [as a fruit hawker].
1974 S. Roberts in S. Gray On Edge of World 144She’s helluva narrow minded...She’ll put up with a ‘rooi-nek’..an Englishman, but Jews and Portuguese, never mind Kaffirs and koelies, are out.
1980 C. Hope A Separate Development (1983) 53Don’t get cheeky with me you bloody koelie, he says.
1983 Daily Dispatch 10 May 6There is hope for places like Ellisras and Vaalwater, where ‘kaffir’ and ‘koelie’ are still in daily use.
1992 [see Hotnot sense 2].
2. combination
koelie creeper, see coolie creeper (coolie sense 2).
1970 A. Palmer Informant, King William’s Town, Eastern CapePeter Pollock bowled a koelie-creeper (ball runs along the ground).
coolie sense 1. Also attributive.
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19561983

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derogatory or offensive
koeksister, nounn.koevoet, nounn.
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