mandarin
n. countablen. a small, sweet orange with a thin skin that is easy to peel. It is a popular fruit because it is juicy and has very few seeds.
n. a small, citrus fruit with a loose, thin rind and sweet segments. When capitalised, refers to the official language of China or a high-ranking government official.
I packed a mandarin in my lunch for a healthy snack.
The children prefer eating a mandarin over a traditional orange because the skin is much easier to remove.
Agricultural exports from the region have increased significantly due to the rising global demand for seedless mandarin varieties that travel well over long distances.
Calque from Chinese 官話／官话 (Guānhuà, “spoken language of the mandarins”). An extension of mandarin (“bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire”) to the language used by the imperial court and sometimes by imperial officials elsewhere. As such, it was adopted as a synonym for Modern Standard Chinese in the 20th century. The term became ambiguous, however, as its use was extended to the various Northern dialects of Chinese.
When referring to the fruit, it is a countable noun; when referring to the language, it is uncountable and must be capitalised.