mandarin
pronunciation
How to pronounce mandarin in British English:
UK [ˈmændərɪn]
How to pronounce mandarin in American English:
US ['mændərɪn]
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- Noun:
- shrub or small tree having flattened globose fruit with very sweet aromatic pulp and thin yellow-orange to flame-orange rind that is loose and easily removed; native to southeastern Asia
- a member of an elite intellectual or cultural group
- any high government official or bureaucrat
- a high public official of imperial China
- a somewhat flat reddish-orange loose-skinned citrus of China
Word Origin
- mandarin
- mandarin: [16] Although it refers to a Chinese official, mandarin is not a Chinese word. Sanskrit mantrin meant ‘counsellor’ (it was a derivative of mantra ‘counsel’, which itself was based on man ‘think’, a distant relative of English mind). Its Hindi descendant mantrī passed into English via Malay mẽteri and Portuguese mandarin. The word’s application to a variety of small loose-skinned orange, which dates in English from the 19th century, was inspired by the yellow robes worn by mandarins.=> mind
- mandarin (n.)
- "Chinese official," 1580s, via Portuguese mandarim or older Dutch mandorijn from Malay mantri, from Hindi mantri "councilor, minister of state," from Sanskrit mantri, nominative of mantrin- "advisor," from mantra "counsel," from PIE root *men- "to think" (see mind (n.)). Form influenced in Portuguese by mandar "to command, order." Used generically for the several grades of Chinese officials; sense of "chief dialect of Chinese" (spoken by officials and educated people) is from c. 1600. Transferred sense of "important person" attested by 1907. The type of small, deep-colored orange so called from 1771, from resemblance of its color to that of robes worn by mandarins.
Example
- 1. News and primetime shows would also be in mandarin .
- 2. She is fluent in mandarin , an increasingly valuable skill in london 's residential real estate market .
- 3. China is keen for foreigners to learn mandarin .
- 4. She 's even contemplating studying mandarin .
- 5. Switzerland 's has a website with local attractions explained in mandarin .