Mandarin is a synonym of putonghua.
As proper nouns the difference between putonghua and mandarin
is that putonghua is putonghua (Pǔtōnghuà); the official language of the People's Republic of China; the common national speech of Han nationality using Beijing pronunciation as the standard pronunciation, using Beijing speech as the basic dialect, and using the model writing of the modern vernacular prose as the norm of grammar, is called Putonghua while Mandarin is standard Mandarin, the official language of China and Taiwan, and one of four official languages in Singapore; Putonghua, Guoyu or Huayu.
As nouns the difference between putonghua and mandarin
is that putonghua is alternative case form of Putonghua|lang=en while mandarin is a high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire.
As an adjective mandarin is
pertaining to or reminiscent of mandarins; deliberately superior or complex; esoteric, highbrow, obscurantist.
putonghua
English
(Putonghua)
Proper noun
(
en proper noun)
Putonghua (); the official language of the People's Republic of China; the common national speech of Han nationality using Beijing pronunciation as the standard pronunciation, using Beijing speech as the basic dialect, and using the model writing of the modern vernacular prose as the norm of grammar, is called Putonghua
See also
* Standard Chinese
* Standard Mandarin
* Standard Spoken Chinese
* Mandarin
* Mandarin Chinese
* Guoyu
* Huayu
* Hanyu
* Zhongwen
mandarin
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) mandarim, mandarij, from (etyl) menteri, manteri, and its source, (etyl) .
Noun
(
en noun)
(historical) A high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire.
A pedantic or elitist bureaucrat.
(often, pejorative) A pedantic senior person of influence in academia or literary circles.
A mandarin duck.
(informal, British) A senior civil servant.
Derived terms
* mandarinate
* mandarinism
* mandarinship
Adjective
(
en adjective)
Pertaining to or reminiscent of mandarins; deliberately superior or complex; esoteric, highbrow, obscurantist.
*1979 , , Smiley's People , Folio Society 2010, p. 58:
*:A mandarin impassivity had descended over Smiley's face. The earlier emotion was quite gone.
* 2007 , Marina Warner, ‘Doubly Damned’, London Review of Books 29:3, p. 26:
*:Though alert to riddles' strong roots in vernacular narrative, Cook's tastes are mandarin , and she gives a loving account of Wallace Stevens's meditations on the life of poetic images and simile […].
Etymology 2
From (etyl) mandarine, feminine of mandarin, probably formed as Etymology 1, above, from the yellow colour of the mandarins' costume.
Noun
(
en noun)
A mandarin orange; a small, sweet citrus fruit.
A mandarin orange tree, Citrus reticulata .
An orange colour.
Anagrams
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