mandarin (redirected from Mandarins)

Mandarin (măn`dərĭn) [Port. mandar=to govern, or from Malay mantri=counselor of state], a high official of imperial China. For each of the nine grades there was a different colored button worn on the dress cap.

Mandarin Chinese was the language spoken by the official class and was based on the Beijing dialect. A version of Mandarin Chinese, known as putonghua [common language], is now taught throughout the country, and it is the official national language. A first or second language for roughly half the nation's population, it is widely spoken in native Chinese regions except along the southeastern coast, where the Cantonese, Fukienese, and Shanghai languages (considered by some to be Chinese dialects) are dominant. See Chinese.

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Mandarin

In imperial China, a public official drawn from the ranks of the lesser officeholders who had achieved success in the Chinese examination system. The word comes from the Portuguese version of the Malay term for a minister of state. It has come to mean a pedantic official, a bureaucrat, or a person of position and influence (and usually a traditionalist or reactionary mindset) in intellectual or literary circles. The Mandarin language is the most widely spoken of the Chinese languages.

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mandarin

1. (in the Chinese Empire) a member of any of the nine senior grades of the bureaucracy, entered by examinations

2. a high-ranking official whose powers are extensive and thought to be outside political control

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mandarin

a. a small citrus tree, Citrus nobilis, cultivated for its edible fruit

b. the fruit of this tree, resembling the tangerine

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mandarin [′man·də·rən]

(botany)

A large and variable group of citrus fruits in the speciesCitrus reticulataand some of its hybrids; many varieties of the trees are compact with willowy twigs and small, narrow, pointed leaves; includes tangerines, King oranges, Temple oranges, and tangelos.