mandarin

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“
Amongst her knick-knacks and treasures there used to be a funny little china figure called a mandarin which had always stood on her sitting-room mantel-piece since the children could remember anything.

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Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun A member of any of the nine ranks of high public officials in the Chinese Empire.
  2. noun A high government official or bureaucrat.
  3. noun A member of an elite group, especially a person having influence or high status in intellectual or cultural circles.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Their name is derived—so I have heard—from the fact that in China no one under the rank of a mandarin was at one time allowed to keep them. —  MY STRANGE PETS AND Other Memories of Country Life
  • I had told her the tree wouldn't last through the winter, but Kira had insisted, saying that the mandarin is especially cold-tolerant. —  StrangeHorizons,August2002
  • NOW, it looks like Chinese New Year … well, save for the mandarin oranges we have yet to buy though. —  Giddy Tigers
  • Their choices of a mandarin, apple and fig tree set them back $70 with no hope of a yield in the short-term. —  Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas
  • A famous mandarin was appointed governor-general of the Kwang provinces to bring the barbarians to their senses. —  Four Young Explorers or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Spanish mandarín, from Portuguese mandarim, from Malay menteri, from Sanskrit mantrī, mantrin-, counselor, from mantraḥ, counsel; see men-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also (as a noun) mandarine; = French mandarin, a mandarin (mandarine, a mandarin orange, a tangerine), = Italian mandarino = Spanish mandarin, from Portuguese mandarim (with final -m for -n, as reg. in Portuguese), a mandarin, from Malay mantrī from Hindustani mantrī, a councilor, minister of state, from Sanskrit mantrin, a councilor, minister of state, from mantra, counsel, advice, from ✓ man, think: see mind.
  2. from mandarin, n. (with reference to mandarin orange).
 

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/mændəˈrin/
by American Heritage

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