The word "mandarin" is correct and usable in written English.
It is usually used as a noun to refer to either a Chinese language or a citrus fruit. You could use it in a sentence like this: "I like to snack on mandarins in the afternoon."
There is "not much reason to change your mind," says the mandarin.
This was the kindly mandarin Tony Blair asked to look into how Srichand Hinduja, a rich Indian, got a British passport at his second time of asking, having been turned down the first time because of his frequent absences from Britain and doubts about his character.
We ended on a modern take on the classic: 3 parts dry gin, 1 part white vermouth, a splash of benedictine and a dash of mandarin and orange bitters.
The man was John Kingman, Treasury second permanent secretary and a mandarin to his fingertips.
THE first law of diplomacy, one late British foreign-office mandarin used to quip, is that "It is not the other side you need to worry about, but your own".
Third, the novice's chief credentials were that he had been a mandarin in the construction ministry.
Gillard, the country's first woman prime minister, Welsh-born but more Aussie than her Mandarin-speaking arch-rival, ought to be coasting comfortably to win a second term in government.
Last year, Kevin Spacey also starred in a part-English, part-Mandarin Chinese film: Dayyan Eng's Inseparable.
Both are recruiting Mandarin-speaking staff and have Chinese-language websites and maps.
He liked to portray himself as at home in Asia, and to show off his skills as a Mandarin-speaker.
Language, for instance: what if one found oneself in possession of a posse of mini-Mandarin speakers?
