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Mantri is a word of Sanskrit origin (meaning sage, i.e. the "person who thinks and says" in that language, cf. Mantra), and it is used for a variety of public offices, from fairly humble to ministerial in rank. The term was used in various Asian cultures and eventually was used by early European traders. The term also forms part of a number of compounds. It is the root of the English word mandarin, for a bureaucrat of the Chinese empire (though the word was never used by the Chinese themselves).