mandarin

See also: Mandarin and mandarín

English

WOTD – 19 March 2009

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmæn.də.ɹɪn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• (UK, General Australian) IPA^(key): /mæn.də.ˈɹɪn/
• Hyphenation: man‧da‧rin

Etymology 1

From Portuguese mandarim, mandarij, from Malay menteri, manteri, and its source, Sanskrit मन्त्रिन् (mantrin, “minister, councillor”), from मन्त्र (mantra, “counsel, maxim, mantra”) +‎ -इन् (-in, an agent suffix).

In Chinese folk etymology, the word originates from Mandarin 滿大人／满大人 (Mǎndàrén, literally “Manchu important man”).

Noun

mandarin (plural mandarins)

1. (historical) A high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire. [from 1580s]
   • 1991, Chris Mullin, The Year of the Fire Monkey‎^[1] (Fiction), London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 252:

     LIKE THE MANDARINS of old, the rulers of China live behind high walls. When they emerge, which they rarely do, they travel in cars with rear windows curtained like sedan chairs.
     They live in the Chung Nan Hai, a walled park adjacent to the Forbidden City from where ancient dynasties ruled the Celestial Empire.

2. A pedantic or elitist bureaucrat.
3. (sometimes derogatory) A pedantic senior person of influence in academia or literary circles.
   • 1966 April 22, “The Beauty of His Malice”, in Time‎^[2], archived from the original on 2012-11-06:

     Its sting preserved to literature a fierce peculiar genius [Waugh] who, in the 40 years before his death last week at 62, achieved recognition as the grand old mandarin of modern British prose and as a satirist whose skill at sticking pens in people rates him a roomy cell in the murderers’ row (Swift, Pope, Wilde, Shaw) of English letters.

   • 2021 June 23, Peter S. Canellos, “Why The ‘Trump Court’ Won’t Be Like Trump”, in Politico:

     When mandarins on the court pointed to obscure language in the Constitution to overturn a century of precedent and declare the income tax unconstitutional, Harlan sided with precedent[.]

   • 2024 January 13, Boyd Tonkin, “The culture of copyright creep”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 9:

     When institutional mandarins such as this eminent pair set out to undermine the traditional basis for remunerating the products of the mind, you might expect a lowly scribe (such as your reviewer) to take umbrage.

4. (ornithology) Ellipsis of mandarin duck.
5. (informal, British) A senior civil servant.

Derived terms

• Cleopatra mandarin
• mandarinal
• mandarinate
• mandarin collar
• mandarin fish
• mandarin gown
• mandarinism
• mandarinship
• mandarin square

 

Descendants

• → Irish: mandairín

Translations

Chinese Imperial bureaucrat

• Afrikaans: mandaryn (af)
• Bulgarian: мандарин (bg) m (mandarin)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 官 (gun¹)

  Mandarin: 官 (zh) (guān)

• Czech: mandarín m
• Danish: mandarin (da) c
• Dutch: mandarijn (nl) m
• Esperanto: mandareno
• Finnish: mandariini (fi)
• French: mandarin (fr) m
• Galician: mandarín (gl) m
• German: Mandarin (de) m
• Greek: μανδαρίνος (el) n (mandarínos)
• Hungarian: mandarin (hu)
• Ido: mandareno (io)
• Indonesian: mandarin (id)
• Irish: mandairín m
• Italian: mandarino (it) m
• Macedonian: мандари́н m (mandarín)
• Polish: mandaryn (pl) m
• Portuguese: mandarim (pt) m
• Romanian: mandarin (ro) m
• Russian: мандари́н (ru) m (mandarín)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: манда̀рӣн m

  Roman: mandàrīn (sh) m

• Swedish: mandarin (sv) c
• Vietnamese: quan (vi)

elitist bureaucrat

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: mandarín m
• Finnish: aurinkokuningas
• Irish: mandairín m
• Romanian: mandarin (ro) m

academic or literary elitist

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: aurinkokuningas
• Romanian: mandarin (ro) m

mandarin duck — see mandarin duck

informal: senior civil servant

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: mandarín m
• Finnish: hallitusherra
• Irish: mandairín m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} byråkrat (sv) c, ^{(please verify)} mandarin (sv) c, ^{(please verify)} pamp (sv) c

Adjective

mandarin (comparative more mandarin, superlative most mandarin)

1. Pertaining to or reminiscent of mandarins; deliberately superior or complex; esoteric, highbrow, obscurantist. [from 20th c.]
   • 1979, John Le Carré, Smiley's People, Folio Society, published 2010, page 58:

     A mandarin impassivity had descended over Smiley's face. The earlier emotion was quite gone.

   • 2007, Marina Warner, “Doubly Damned”, in London Review of Books, 29:3, p. 26:

     Though alert to riddles' strong roots in vernacular narrative, Cook's tastes are mandarin, and she gives a loving account of Wallace Stevens's meditations on the life of poetic images and simile […].

Etymology 2

From French mandarine, feminine of mandarin, probably formed as Etymology 1, above, from the yellow colour of the mandarins' costume.

Noun

mandarin (plural mandarins)

1. Ellipsis of mandarin orange.:
   1. A small, sweet citrus fruit.
   2. A tree of the species Citrus reticulata.
2. An orange colour.

   mandarin:  

Hypernyms

• fruit
  • citrus

Translations

fruit — see mandarin orange

tree — see mandarin orange

Further reading

• mandarin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Mirandan

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish mandarín.

Noun

mandarin

1. mandarin (fruit)

Declension

Declension of mandarin

	singular	plural
nominative	mandarin	mandarinler
genitive	mandarinniñ	mandarinlerniñ
dative	mandaringe	mandarinlerge
accusative	mandarinni	mandarinlerni
locative	mandarinde	mandarinlerde
ablative	mandarinden	mandarinlerden

References

• Mirjejev, V. A., Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]‎^[3], Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN

Danish

Etymology

From Portuguese mandarim.

Noun

mandarin c (singular definite mandarinen, plural indefinite mandariner)

1. mandarin (Chinese Imperial bureaucrat)
2. mandarin orange, mandarin (a small, sweet citrus fruit)

Inflection

Declension of mandarin

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	mandarin	mandarinen	mandariner	mandarinerne
genitive	mandarins	mandarinens	mandariners	mandarinernes

Noun

mandarin n

1. Mandarin

References

• “mandarin” in Den Danske Ordbog

Faroese

Etymology

From Danish mandarin, from Dutch mandorijn or Portuguese mandarim, mandarij, from Malay menteri, manteri, from Hindi मन्त्रि (mantri), from Sanskrit मन्त्रिन् (mantrin, “minister, councillor”), from मन्त्र (mantra, “counsel, maxim, mantra”) + -इन् (-in, “an agent suffix”).

Noun

mandarin f (genitive singular mandarinar, plural mandarinir)

1. mandarin orange, mandarin (a small, sweet citrus fruit)

Declension

Declension of mandarin
f2	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	mandarin	mandarinin	mandarinir	mandarinirnar
accusative	mandarin	mandarinina	mandarinir	mandarinirnar
dative	mandarin	mandarinini	mandarinum	mandarinunum
genitive	mandarinar	mandarinarinnar	mandarina	mandarinanna

Noun

mandarin n (genitive singular mandarins)

1. Mandarin

Declension

	Singular
	Indefinite
Nominative	mandarin
Accusative	mandarin
Dative	mandarini
Genitive	mandarins

See also

• mandarinur

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɑ̃.da.ʁɛ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

mandarin (feminine mandarine, masculine plural mandarins, feminine plural mandarines)

1. mandarin (of the former Chinese empire)

Derived terms

• diamant mandarin

Descendants

• → Breton: mandarin
• → Greek: μανδαρίνος (mandarínos)

Noun

mandarin m (uncountable)

1. Mandarin (language)

Further reading

• “mandarin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɒndɒrin]
• Hyphenation: man‧da‧rin
• Rhymes: -in

Etymology 1

An internationalism mainly via German, originally from Portuguese mandarim, mandarij, from Malay menteri, manteri.

Noun

mandarin (countable and uncountable, plural mandarinok)

1. (historical) mandarin
2. Mandarin (language)

Declension

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	mandarin	mandarinok
accusative	mandarint	mandarinokat
dative	mandarinnak	mandarinoknak
instrumental	mandarinnal	mandarinokkal
causal-final	mandarinért	mandarinokért
translative	mandarinná	mandarinokká
terminative	mandarinig	mandarinokig
essive-formal	mandarinként	mandarinokként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	mandarinban	mandarinokban
superessive	mandarinon	mandarinokon
adessive	mandarinnál	mandarinoknál
illative	mandarinba	mandarinokba
sublative	mandarinra	mandarinokra
allative	mandarinhoz	mandarinokhoz
elative	mandarinból	mandarinokból
delative	mandarinról	mandarinokról
ablative	mandarintól	mandarinoktól
non-attributive possessive - singular	mandariné	mandarinoké
non-attributive possessive - plural	mandarinéi	mandarinokéi

Possessive forms of mandarin
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	mandarinom	mandarinjaim
2nd person sing.	mandarinod	mandarinjaid
3rd person sing.	mandarinja	mandarinjai
1st person plural	mandarinunk	mandarinjaink
2nd person plural	mandarinotok	mandarinjaitok
3rd person plural	mandarinjuk	mandarinjaik

Etymology 2

An internationalism mainly via German, probably formed as Etymology 1, above, from the yellow colour of the mandarins' costume.

Noun

mandarin (plural mandarinok)

1. mandarin, mandarin orange (fruit)

Declension

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	mandarin	mandarinok
accusative	mandarint	mandarinokat
dative	mandarinnak	mandarinoknak
instrumental	mandarinnal	mandarinokkal
causal-final	mandarinért	mandarinokért
translative	mandarinná	mandarinokká
terminative	mandarinig	mandarinokig
essive-formal	mandarinként	mandarinokként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	mandarinban	mandarinokban
superessive	mandarinon	mandarinokon
adessive	mandarinnál	mandarinoknál
illative	mandarinba	mandarinokba
sublative	mandarinra	mandarinokra
allative	mandarinhoz	mandarinokhoz
elative	mandarinból	mandarinokból
delative	mandarinról	mandarinokról
ablative	mandarintól	mandarinoktól
non-attributive possessive - singular	mandariné	mandarinoké
non-attributive possessive - plural	mandarinéi	mandarinokéi

Possessive forms of mandarin
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	mandarinom	mandarinjaim
2nd person sing.	mandarinod	mandarinjaid
3rd person sing.	mandarinja	mandarinjai
1st person plural	mandarinunk	mandarinjaink
2nd person plural	mandarinotok	mandarinjaitok
3rd person plural	mandarinjuk	mandarinjaik

Further reading

• (Chinese government bureaucrat): mandarin in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• (mandarin orange): mandarin in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Indonesian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [manˈdarɪn]
• Hyphenation: man‧da‧rin

Etymology 1

From Portuguese mandarim (“mandarin”), from Malay menteri (“minister”), from Sanskrit मन्त्री (mantrī, “minister”). Doublet of manti, mantri, and menteri.

Noun

mandarin (first-person possessive mandarinku, second-person possessive mandarinmu, third-person possessive mandarinnya)

1. mandarin,
   1. (historical) a high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire [from 1580s].
   2. Mandarin, the language of those official, which is the official language of China and Taiwan.

Etymology 2

From English mandarin (“mandarin orange”), from French mandarine, feminine of mandarin, probably formed as Etymology 1, above, from the yellow colour of the mandarins' costume.

Noun

mandarin (first-person possessive mandarinku, second-person possessive mandarinmu, third-person possessive mandarinnya)

1. mandarin orange

Further reading

• “mandarin” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Sanskrit मन्त्रिन् (mantrin, “minister, councillor”), Malay menteri, manteri, and Portuguese mandarim.

Noun

mandarin m (definite singular mandarinen, indefinite plural mandariner, definite plural mandarinene)

1. (uncountable) Mandarin (official language in China)
2. a mandarin ((formerly) a Chinese official; (now) a bureaucrat)
3. (fruit) a mandarin or mandarin orange

References

• “mandarin” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Sanskrit मन्त्रिन् (mantrin, “minister, councillor”), Malay menteri, manteri, and Portuguese mandarim.

Noun

mandarin m (definite singular mandarinen, indefinite plural mandarinar, definite plural mandarinane)

1. (uncountable) Mandarin (official language in China)
2. a mandarin ((formerly) a Chinese official; (now) a bureaucrat)
3. (fruit) a mandarin or mandarin orange

References

• “mandarin” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French mandarin.

Noun

mandarin m (plural mandarini)

1. mandarin

Declension

Declension of mandarin

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) mandarin	mandarinul	(niște) mandarini	mandarinii
genitive/dative	(unui) mandarin	mandarinului	(unor) mandarini	mandarinilor
vocative	mandarinule		mandarinilor

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mandǎriːn/
• Hyphenation: man‧da‧rin

Noun

mandàrīn m (Cyrillic spelling манда̀рӣн)

1. mandarin (Chinese Imperial bureaucrat)

Declension

Declension of mandarin

	singular	plural
nominative	mandàrīn	mandarini
genitive	mandarína	mandarina
dative	mandarinu	mandarinima
accusative	mandarina	mandarine
vocative	mandarine	mandarini
locative	mandarinu	mandarinima
instrumental	mandarinom	mandarinima

Swedish

Etymology

From Portuguese mandarim.

Noun

mandarin c or n

1. (common) mandarin orange
2. (common, historical) mandarin; a high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire.
3. (uncountable, neuter) Mandarin

Declension

Declension of mandarin
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	mandarin	mandarinen	mandariner	mandarinerna
Genitive	mandarins	mandarinens	mandariners	mandarinernas

Declension of mandarin 3
	Uncountable
	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	mandarin	mandarinet	—	—
Genitive	mandarins	mandarinets	—	—

Derived terms

• mandarinsk

References

• mandarin in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• mandarin in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• mandarin in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)