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苦力

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Chinese

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bitter; intensely; miserable
bitter; intensely; miserable; painful
 
power; force; strength
trad. (苦力) 苦 力
simp. #(苦力) 苦 力
Chinese Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia zh

Etymology

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Possibly a phono-semantic matching of Hindustani (Hindi क़ुली (qulī) / Urdu قُلِی (qulī)) or its cognates.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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苦力

  1. labor; hard work
  2. (historical) coolie; laborer

Synonyms

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Descendants

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  • → Japanese: (Ateji) 苦力

Japanese

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Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ja
Kanji in this term
苦 力
くー
Grade: 3
りー
Grade: 1
irregular

Etymology

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Ateji (当(あ)て字(じ)) borrowed from phono-semantic matching of Mandarin 苦力 (kǔlì).[1], possibly a phono-semantic matching of Hindustani (Hindi क़ुली (qulī) / Urdu قُلِی (qulī)) or its cognates.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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苦力(クーリー) • (kūrī) 

  1. coolie (laborer)

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN