Mantra, official and mandarin
- In the 16th century, Portuguese travelers began calling the Chinese empire officials mandarim and since then, it has also been known as the Mandarim language used by these government officials.
The word comes from Sanskrit, mantrinah (advisor, minister). And mantrinah comes from another more well-known Sanskrit word: mantrah (advice, prayer, hymn).
Like orange, mandarin originates in China. In the West, the younger sisters of the oranges started naming for a simple reason the same name as the imperial bureaucrats: the costumes and the fruits of the officials were of the same color.