‖kommando, noun

/kɔˈmandəʊ//kəˈmɑːndəʊ/
Forms:
Also with initial capital.
Origin:
Afrikaans, South African DutchShow more Afrikaans, from South African Dutch commando, kommando (see commando).
A small fighting force; a member of such a force.
1.
a. commando sense 4 and 5. Also attributive.
1971 J.A. Brown Return 113The police force was small but sound...The district kommandos could be called up if trouble spread..the farmers and traders, they were men who had fought two or three wars already.
1972 Star 17 Mar. 17Here (sc. at Cottesloe hill) the 1700-strong Knopkierie Kommando, rough Afrikaner men, were shelled and rifled into submission.
1988 D. Haarhoff in Staffrider Vol.7 No.1, 42Snorting horses unlaagered at dawn carry the Kommando across bordering bloodrivered waters.
1988 S.A. Botha in Frontline Apr.–May 25No-one came up with a plan of action to satisfy the blooming kommando spirit.
1992 ‘K. Lemmer’ in Weekly Mail 3 July 12Every last man knows one thing: when the Groot Mariko Kommando says ‘Kom!’ you come, on the double.
b. With defining words denoting particular types of kommando, particularly in right-wing paramilitary organizations:
blitskommando/ˈbləts-/ [Afrikaans, blits lightning], a strike force;
boerekommando/buːrə-/ [Afrikaans, boere see boere], a name for the military wing of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (see AWB); cf. wenkommando (below); see also commando sense 7; Kappie Kommando, see as a main entry;
skiet-kommando/ˈskit-/ [Afrikaans, skiet shoot], a commando of soldiers bearing rifles;
wenkommando/ˈven-/, also winkommando/ˈvən-/, [Afrikaans, wen to win], historically, the Boer commando which fought and won the battle of Blood River; later, a name for the military wing of the AWB; cf. boerekommando (above).
1981 Sunday Times 23 Aug. 21We do have a special motorcycle unit, the Stormvalke, and a marching unit, called the Blitskommando.
1981 Pretoria News 26 Nov. 26Today it operates openly and even boasts its own vigilante groups like the ‘Blitskommando’ and the ‘Stormvalke,’ a leather-jacket squad of motorbike troops.
1990 D. Van Heerden in Sunday Times 10 June 8The Boerekommandos..are the latest in a long list of failed attempts by the AWB to get a military wing off the ground. Their predecessors were the Stormvalke and Aquila.
1993 Sunday Times 12 Dec. 5Tuesday went by with the men of the Pretoria Boere Kommando dug in at the fort.
1972 Sunday Times 3 Dec. (Mag. Sect.) 1Now, although many do not realise it, there are no such things as ‘skietkommandos’. They are all commandos.
1953 B. Fuller Call Back Yesterday 135He sold his farm at short notice, trekked northwards with his herds, and joined the Wenkommando.
1971 Daily Dispatch 16 Dec. 10At the head of this commando, afterwards termed the ‘winkommando’ because they won the Blood River battle, stood kommandant-general Andries Pretorius.
1972 S. Afr. Panorama Mar. 30On December 3, 1838, at the head of 463 fighting men, Andries Pretorius crossed the Tugela River at Skietsdrif. The Wen-Kommando (Victory Commando), as it was prophetically called, was committed to one of the most decisive battles ever fought in Southern Africa.
1991 L. Venter in Sunday Times 6 Jan. 7The AWB’s official militant wing is now called Wenkommandos — named after a trekker commando which fought the Zulus...AWB sources told him the Wenkommandos’ predecessor, Aquila, had about 300 fully-trained men.
1993 Sunday Times 25 Apr. 21Police sources believe the AWB may be able to muster 15 000 members of its fanatical and highly-drilled Wenkommandos.
1993 Star 22 July 3The honour confers on the Wenkommando the right to parade in the town once a year with fixed bayonets, and have free drinks afterwards.
2. In the Voortrekker youth movement: commando sense 9.
1975 E. Prov. Herald 9 Aug. 4A bazaar in the Nico Malan Hall of the Fort Beaufort High School organised by the Fort Beaufort Voortrekker Kommando brought in R403.
1984 Daily Dispatch 18 May 8Prof B— said Mr Chris H— had done the Voortrekker movement a disfavour by using his privilege to officiate at a kommando to create anxiety within the movement.
A small fighting force; a member of such a force.
commando sense 4 and 5. Also attributive.
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Afrikaans
kommandant, nounn.kommetjie, nounn.
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