Mandarin

Mandarin [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.

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 may refer to any of the following:

• Mandarin (bureaucrat), a bureaucrat of Imperial China, Vietnam or Korea, and by analogy, any government bureaucrat;

In relation to China, the Chinese language or Chinese culture:

• Mandarin dress, a style of clothing derived from Manchurian garb;
• Mandarin collar, a short shirt or jacket collar that is not folded;
• Mandarin Chinese, a primary branch of the Chinese languages, often specifically:
• Standard Mandarin, the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China, Republic of China (Taiwan) and Singapore, and widely used by overseas Chinese. The dialect is "standard" - meaning based on the Beijing dialect of the Mandarin language;
• Mandarin orange, or simply a mandarin or mandarine, a variety of citrus fruit which includes the satsuma;

In biology:

• Kinnow, Mandarin (citrus), Kinnow also called as mandarin;
• Mandarin duck, Aix galericulata;
• Mandarin fish, Siniperca chuatsi;
• Mandarin orange, Citrus reticulata, also known simply as a mandarin or a mandarine;

As a company name:

• Mandarin Airlines, a subsidiary of China Airlines;
• Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, a Hong Kong hotel formerly known as The Mandarin, the founding member of the Mandarin Oriental hotel group;
• Mandarin Publishing, a publishing unit of Random House;
• Mandarin Software, a British software developer later purchased by Europress;

Other uses:

• Mandarin (comics), a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe, one of the major archenemies of Iron Man;
• Mandarin high school, a high school in the southern part of Jacksonville Florida;
• Mandarin Mix-Up, a 1924 film starring Stan Laurel;
• Mandarin (novel), a 1983 Robert Elegant novel;
• Mandarin (SRMTHFG), a character in the animated TV series Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go!;
• The Mandarins, 1954 roman-à-clef by Simone de Beauvoir;
• The Mandarins Drum and Bugle Corps, a drum and bugle corps from Sacramento, California;

places:

• Mandarin, Jacksonville, Florida, United States, a wealthy 19th century community, since absorbed into the city limits of Jacksonville;