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Mandarin

4 stages from Sanskrit to English.

Today it means the standard spoken form of Chinese; a powerful bureaucrat; a small loose-skinned orange

Where does the word "mandarin" come from? It comes from Sanskrit mantrin, passing through Malay and Portuguese before entering English (1580s).

mantrin→menteri→mandarim→mandarin

Sanskrit · ancient

"counsellor, minister"

from mantra 'counsel'; the Arthashastra, the ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, advises the king to rule with a council of mantrins

Malay · medieval

"minister of state"

Sanskrit statecraft terms entered Malay through Indianised courts such as Srivijaya; the Malacca Sultanate used menteri for its royal ministers

Portuguese · 1500s

"high official, especially Chinese"

picked up after Afonso de Albuquerque took Malacca in 1511, and reshaped to echo Portuguese mandar 'to command'; from Macau (settled 1557) they applied it to Ming Chinese officials

English · 1580s

"Chinese official"

first recorded in English in the late 1580s, in translated accounts of China such as those of the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries; the officials' spoken language and, from the 1770s, the small orange later took the name too

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Read the full story

Mandarin’s story begins in Sanskrit: mantrin meant “counsellor, minister.” From mantra 'counsel'; the Arthashastra, the ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, advises the king to rule with a council of mantrins. By medieval, the word had taken hold in Malay as menteri. Sanskrit statecraft terms entered Malay through Indianised courts such as Srivijaya; the Malacca Sultanate used menteri for its royal ministers. From there it passed into Portuguese as mandarim by 1500s. Picked up after Afonso de Albuquerque took Malacca in 1511, and reshaped to echo Portuguese mandar 'to command'; from Macau (settled 1557) they applied it to Ming Chinese officials. It reached English by 1580s as mandarin. First recorded in English in the late 1580s, in translated accounts of China such as those of the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries; the officials' spoken language and, from the 1770s, the small orange later took the name too. Today, mandarin means the standard spoken form of Chinese; a powerful bureaucrat; a small loose-skinned orange.