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COMMANDO
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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.