the.com/mandarin
A pocket-sized sun you peel with your thumb, sweeter than its grapefruit cousins.
means A small, easy-to-peel citrus fruit with loose orange skin and sweet segments, of which the tangerine is one well-known type (the word also names a high official of imperial China and the standard Chinese language, but here it's the fruit).
from The fruit borrows its name from the official: 'mandarin' came to Europe via Portuguese 'mandarim', from Malay 'menteri', tracing back to Sanskrit 'mantrin', meaning 'counselor' or 'minister' (a cousin of 'mantra'). The popular story links the fruit to the deep orange-yellow robes of those Chinese officials — and that color association does seem to be how the citrus earned the name in the 18th–19th centuries.
- naming
- Named for imperial officials' bright orange robes
- orange parent
- Crossed with pomelo to invent the orange
- clementine kin
- Clementines are a seedless mandarin variety
- easy peel
- Loose skin slips off without a knife
- china origin
- Cultivated there over 3,000 years ago
mandarin orange — citrus fruit originating from china, now major crop in spain, morocco, and brazil
mandarin chinese language — spoken by 1 billion people, official language of china and taiwan
mandarin duck — colorful waterfowl native to east asia, symbol of marital fidelity in chinese culture