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[N.K.Kh.]

I have heard abt the Manchu hypothesis as well. Actually first I did believe the word Mandarin had something to do with the word Manchu. But a learned friend of mine in China said that, even though ManDaRen may mean "great person of Manchu tribe" as you said, it was actually not the way (Han) people in the streets addressed the Manchu mandarins. Probaby they would call the Manchu official "DaRen" (Great Person, or Your Excellency), without referring to the ethnic origin(s) of the officials. (Under the Qing government, there were Han Chinese officials as well as the Manchu officials).

My second reference is the Webster English Dictionary, which gives the root of the word Mandarin as Mantri, Menteri, from PaliSanskrit and Malay.

If there were a word ManDaRen in use in Chinese in late Qing period, I believe we can easily check it. Come to think of it, I never heard the honorific DaRen being used with other nationalities. (No "HanDaren"/ "HuDaRen"/ "ManguDaRen", etc. at least not that I know of.)

I will be glad to hear others commenting on this issue. PekingMan? LinXiaojie? Please?