Kommando

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A military unit organized for special operations, typically characterized by its elite training and specific mission objectives
2. A term that can refer to a troop or command unit, especially in a context involving unconventional warfare or tactical missions
3. Often associated with elite forces that specialize in direct action and strategic operations within combat scenarios

Etymology: Mounted farmers in South Africa did not name their fighting groups after troops at all. The Afrikaans "kommando" comes from Portuguese "comando," meaning authority or the power to give orders, which derives from the verb "comandar," to command. It passed into Dutch and then Afrikaans, where it named the locally raised mounted units that communities assembled for defence or raids. English speakers met the term during the Second Boer War, when British forces faced these fast, self-organised riding groups that did not fit a conventional army structure. The name stuck in English for such forces and gradually came to mean any small, self-contained unit sent on a raid or special mission. The Second World War gave the sense its best-known modern form. The British commandos formed to raid the coasts of occupied Europe took their name directly from those South African units, which had impressed British observers with their independence and mobility.