Mandarin

How to spell mandarin

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce mandarin

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mandarin mean?

1. nounA small citrus fruit with a loose, easily peeled skin and sweet segments.
2. nounA powerful, often remote senior official in a civil service or bureaucracy.
3. nounThe standard official spoken language of China, based on the northern dialects.

Mandarin in a sentence

• She packed a mandarin in her lunch for an easy peeled snack.

• The reform was blocked by a senior treasury mandarin who disliked change.

• She studied mandarin for three years before working in Beijing.

• The recipe called for the zest of one mandarin to flavour the cake.

• Every mandarin in the department guarded their influence carefully.

• The firm hired a translator fluent in both mandarin and Cantonese.

Where does mandarin come from?

Language of origin: Sanskrit

The word travelled a remarkably long way before settling in English. Its deepest root is the Sanskrit mantrin, meaning 'counsellor' or 'adviser', itself built on mantra, meaning 'counsel' or 'sacred utterance'. From India the idea spread through Malay as menteri, meaning 'minister' or 'official', and Portuguese traders in Asia rendered this as mandarim, applying it to the powerful scholar-officials of imperial China. English adopted the form mandarin in the late 1500s, and the meaning broadened over the centuries to cover any senior, often aloof, bureaucrat. The small loose-skinned citrus fruit took the same name, most likely because its bright orange colour recalled the silk robes worn by those Chinese officials, and the same name later attached to the standard spoken language of China.

How the word is built

• mandarin (from Portuguese mandarim, ultimately from Sanskrit mantrin: counsellor)