mandarim

Forms

mandarim m (plural mandarins)^[1] Houaiss records mandarins in 1514, mandarjm in 1522 and manderym in 1563.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Malay menteri, which Dalgado and Houaiss write mantari, from Sanskrit मन्त्रिन् (mantrin, “counsellor, minister”), probably with /t/ changed to /d/ under the influence of mandar (“to command”).^[2][3][4][1] The Sanskrit word is formed from मन्त्र (mantra, “counsel”) with an agent suffix.^[1] Corriente traces it through Hindi and other languages of India.^[5][6]

Dalgado insists that the word is neither Chinese nor derived from that verb, which only shaped its vowel.^[3] Vieira, by contrast, derived it from the Portuguese verb and rejected the Sanskrit source.^[7] Aurélio treats it as a variant of mandari.^[8]

The Portuguese word spread to the other languages of Europe: English mandarin, French mandarin, Dutch mandarijn, German Mandarin and Italian mandarino.^[2][3][1] The English word is recorded from the 1580s, through Portuguese or Dutch.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record, mandarins in 1514, comes from the letters of Afonso de Albuquerque (his siglum AAlbCar).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word named the officials of the old empires of China, Annam and Korea, recruited by examination from the class of scholars.^[2][3] Bento Pereira took mandarim as a synonym of mandador “one who commands”.^[3] From the officials the name passed to their language: a text of 1729 speaks of the universal language of China that “ours call Mandarina, because all the mandarins of the empire use it”, and Houaiss dates that sense to 1729.^[10][2]

Figuratively, a mandarim is a self-important person or an influential boss, mandachuva.^[2][8] In Brazil the zebra finch is called mandarim, a clipping of diamante-mandarim.^[11][1]

Timeline

• 1514 – mandarins in the letters of Afonso de Albuquerque.^[2]
• 1522 – the spelling mandarjm.^[2]
• 1563 – the spelling manderym.^[2]
• 1580s – first record of the English word mandarin.^[9]
• 1729 – first record of the sense “the language of the mandarins”.^[2][10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the word from mandar and rejects the Sanskrit etymon.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A mandarin: an official of the old empires of China, Annam and Korea, a member of the class of scholars recruited by examination.^[2][8][1]
2. (figurative, pejorative) A person full of self-importance because of titles or office; an influential person, a mandachuva.^[2][8]
3. (linguistics) Mandarin, the main group of Chinese dialects, spoken in the north, centre and south-west of China, and the standard language based on the speech of Beijing.^[2][8][1]
4. (Brazil) The zebra finch, an Australian cage bird.^[11][1]

Adjective

1. (linguistics) Of or relating to Mandarin.^[2][8]

Word family

• mandarina

Related words

• mandari
• Malay menteri
• English mandarin

Usage notes

The feminine is mandarina.^[8][12] Aulete records a separate mandarim in coachmen's slang, a name for the faia of the motor cars, compared with mandarete.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mandarim
3. ^ a b c d e Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 2, 20
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mandarim
5. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 376
6. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. mandarim
7. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 89
8. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mandarim
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 2, 22
11. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. mandarim
12. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5900
13. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. mandarim