Mandarin

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Mandarin \Man`da*rin"\, n. [Pg. mandarim, from Malay mantr[imac]
     minister of state, prop. a Hind. word, fr. Skr. mantrin a
     counselor, manira a counsel, man to think.]
     1. A Chinese public officer or nobleman; a civil or military
        official in China and Annam.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. Hence: A powerful government official or bureaucrat,
        especially one who is pedantic and has a strong sense of
        his own importance and privelege.
        [PJC]
  
     3. Hence: A member of an influential, powerful or elite
        group, espcially within artistic or intellectual circles;
        -- used especially of elder members who are traditionalist
        or conservative about their specialties.
        [PJC]
  
     5. The form of the Chinese language spoken by members of the
        Chinese Imperial Court an officials of the empire.
        [PJC]
  
     6. Any of several closely related dialects of the Chinese
        language spoken by a mojority of the population of China,
        the standard variety of which is spoken in the region
        around Beijing.
        [PJC]
  
     7. (Bot.) A small flattish reddish-orange loose-skinned
        orange, with an easily separable rind. It is thought to be
        of Chinese origin, and is counted a distinct species
        ({Citrus reticulata} formerly {Citrus nobilis}); called
        also {mandarin orange} and {tangerine}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Mandarin language}, the spoken or colloquial language of
        educated people in China.
  
     {Mandarin yellow} (Chem.), an artificial aniline dyestuff
        used for coloring silk and wool, and regarded as a complex
        derivative of quinoline.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  mandarin
       n 1: 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 [syn: {mandarin orange}, {mandarin
            orange tree}, {Citrus reticulata}]
       2: a member of an elite intellectual or cultural group
       3: any high government official or bureaucrat
       4: a high public official of imperial China
       5: a somewhat flat reddish-orange loose-skinned citrus of China
          [syn: {mandarin orange}]
       6: the dialect of Chinese spoken in Beijing and adopted as the
          official language for all of China [syn: {Mandarin Chinese},
           {Mandarin dialect}, {Beijing dialect}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  56 Moby Thesaurus words for "mandarin":
     Brahmin, authority, brainworker, bureaucrat, civil servant, doctor,
     egghead, elder, elder statesman, elitist, functionary,
     functionnaire, great soul, guru, highbrow, illuminate, intellect,
     intellectual, intellectualist, jack-in-office, literate,
     lover of wisdom, mahatma, man of intellect, man of wisdom, master,
     mastermind, mentor, name-dropper, office-bearer, officeholder,
     officer, official, officiary, oracle, petty tyrant, philosopher,
     placeman, prig, public official, public servant, rabbi, red-tapist,
     rishi, sage, sapient, savant, scholar, seer, snob, starets,
     thinker, tufthunter, white-collar intellectual, wise man,
     wise old man