COMMANDO, a Portuguese word meaning "command," adopted by the Boers in South Africa for military and semi-mili tary expeditions against the natives. More particularly a "com mando" 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 16 and 6o. Each "commando" was formed from the burghers of military age of an electoral district.