COMMANDO  , a Portuguese word meaning " command," adopted by the Boers in

South Africa through whom it has come into English use, for military and semi-military expeditions against the natives . More particularly a " commando " was the administrative and tactical unit of the forces of the former Boer republics, " commandeered " under the law of the constitutions which made military service obligatory on all males between the ages of sixteen and sixty . Each " commando " was formed from the burghers of military age of an electoral district .