Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.9093

c10.9093

MANDARIN, s. Port. Mandarij, Mandarim. Wedgwood explains and derives the word thus: “A Chinese officer, a name first made known to us by the Portuguese, and like the Indian caste, erroneously supposed to be a native term. From Portuguese mandar, to hold authority, command, govern, &c.” So also T. Hyde in the quotation below. Except as regards the word having been first made known to us by the Portuguese, this is an old and persistent mistake. What sort of form would mandarij be as a derivative from mandar? The Portuguese might have applied to Eastern officials some such word as mandador, which a preceding article (see MANDADORE) shows that they did apply in certain cases. But the parallel to the assumed origin of mandarin from mandar would be that English voyagers on visiting China, or some other country in the far East, should have invented, as a title for the officials of that country, a new and abnormal derivation from ‘order,’ and called them orderumbos.