Mandarin
proper noun
- the Mandarin language, - major branch of Chinese spoken across most of northern and southwestern China
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L323594 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈmæn.də.ɹɪn/ / /mæn.dəˈɹɪn/ / /ˈmæn.d(ə).ɹɪn/
adj
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *men- Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-trom Proto-Indo-Iranian *mántras Sanskrit मन्त्र॑ (mántra) Proto-Indo-Iranian *-in- Sanskrit -इन् (-in) Sanskrit म॒न्त्रिन् (mantrín)bor. Malay menteribor. Portuguese mandarimbor. English mandarin 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).
- Pertaining to or reminiscent of mandarins; deliberately superior or complex; esoteric, highbrow, obscurantist.
“A mandarin impassivity had descended over Smiley's face. The earlier emotion was quite gone.”
“[Anatole] Broyard's columns were suffused with both worldliness and high culture. Wry, mandarin, even self-amused at times, he wrote like a man about town, but one who just happened to have all of Western literature at his fingertips.”
name
Etymology: Calque from Chinese 官話／官话 (Guānhuà, “spoken language of the mandarins”). An extension of mandarin (“bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire”) to the language used by the imperial court and sometimes by imperial officials elsewhere. As such, it was adopted as a synonym for Modern Standard Chinese in the 20th century. The term became ambiguous, however, as its use was extended to the various Northern dialects of Chinese.
- Standard Mandarin, an official language of China and Taiwan, and one of four official languages in Singapore; Putonghua, Guoyu or Huayu.
“[...]and though the ſame word hath one ſignification in the Mandorines Language, and a contrary in Japan and other places, yet knowing one Speech and their Character, you may Travel not only through the Empire of China, but the adjacent Kingdoms.”
“Far fewer people understood Mandarin in Hotan than anywhere else I'd been in Xinjiang. It made getting around difficult, as not only did the taxi drivers fail to understand what I was saying, but they couldn't read an address either. Most ignored or didn't know the Chinese names given to the streets anyway.”
- A branch of the Chinese languages, consisting of many dialects; Guanhua or Beifanghua.
“"Two, three, four, five, south! Six, seven, eight, nine, north!" Strange as it may sound, this is the way the people on the Chinese mainland complain about the lack of clothes, food and other necessities. Absent from the phrases are "one" and "ten"—"i" and "shih" in Chinese Mandarin. The words for "clothes" and "food" sound alike. Also missing are "east" and "west." Their Chinese equivalents when put together as "tung-hsi," stand for "things," "objects" or "matters."”
noun
Etymology: From French mandarine, feminine of mandarin, probably formed as Etymology 1, above, from the yellow colour of the mandarins' costume.
- Ellipsis of mandarin orange:
- Ellipsis of mandarin orange:
- An orange colour.