MANDARIN

I. noun see: mantra Date: 1589 1. a public official in the Chinese Empire of any of nine superior grades, b. a pedantic official, bureaucrat , a person of position and influence often in intellectual or literary circles, 2. capitalized a form of spoken Chinese used by the court and the official classes of the Empire, the group of closely related Chinese dialects that are spoken in about four fifths of the country and have a standard variety centering about Beijing, 3. \Swedish ~ (apelsin) ~ (orange), ultimately from Portuguese mandarim ~; perhaps from the color of a ~'s robes] a small spiny orange tree ( Citrus reticulata ) of southeastern Asia with yellow to reddish-orange loose-rinded fruits, the fruit of a ~, ~ic adjective ~ism noun II. adjective Date: 1604 of, relating to, or typical of a ~ , marked by polished ornate complexity of language