| 释义 |
‖ commando S. Africa.|kəˈmɑːndəʊ, -æ-|
[a. Pg. commando ‘command, party commanded’, f. stem of commandar to command.]
1. a. A party commanded or called out for military purposes; an expedition or raid: a word applied in South Africa to quasi-military expeditions of the Portuguese or the Dutch Boers (esp. the latter) against the natives. (See also quot. 1791.)
1791G. Carter Loss of Grosvenor xl. 150 ‘A colonist,’ says he [Vaillant], ‘who lives..up the country..intreats a commando, which is a permission to go, with the help of his neighbours, to retake his property.’ 1809R. Collins in P. J. van der Merwe Noordwaartse Beweging (1937) 87 The prohibition to their carrying off women and children has greatly served to damp their ardour for commandos. 1834Pringle Afr. Sk. xiv. 435 The boors made commandoes on our fathers. Ibid. xiv. 458 The old wretched policy of military reprisals—the commando system. 1884Pall Mall G. 9 May 3/2 The presence of a commando of several hundred respectable Boers in Central Zululand. 1885Athenæum 15 Aug. 201 The capture..of native children by the Dutch commandos. 1952E. H. Burrows Overberg Outspan ii. 34 An armed commando sixty strong. 1966E. Palmer Plains of Camdeboo iii. 48 One [mule] was stolen by a Boer neighbour, who rode away on it to join Malan's commando.
b. Phr. on commando or upon commando, on militia service in the Boer army; engaged in a commando.
1824W. J. Burchell Trav. II. 111 The master himself was at this time absent on the Commando, or militia-service, against the Caffres in the Zuureveld. 1837J. E. Alexander Voy. W. Afr. xv. 380 The colonists..disliked..going on commando into Kaffir-land to recover stolen property. 1879Chambers's Jrnl. 344/1 All the men capable of bearing arms were then on commando. 1899Daily News 30 Sept. 5/3 Burghers refusing to go on commando. 1900Kipling in J. Ralph War's Brighter Side (1901) viii. 117 We sailed upon commando To vierneuk our Brother Boer.
2. In the South African War (1899–1902), a unit of the Boer army composed of the militia of an electoral district. Also attrib.
1899Westm. Gaz. 11 Nov. 8/1 The President..has the right of declaring war and calling up one or more commandos. 1900Kipling in Daily Express 13 June 4/5 We kept our commando-horses ready for six months. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXIII. 438/2 Each field-cornet..was responsible for the arms, equipment and attendance of his commando—the commando being the tactical as well as the administrative unit. 1902Daily Chron. 16 June 5/5 Burghers..all thronging into the commando trains.
3. a. A member of a body of picked men trained originally (in 1940) as shock troops for the repelling of the threatened German invasion of England, later for the carrying out of raids on the Continent and elsewhere. Also applied to similar troops of other countries. Also attrib. and Comb.
1940W. S. Churchill in Second World War (1949) II. 566 Plans should be studied to land secretly by night on the islands and kill or capture the invaders. This is exactly one of the exploits for which the Commandos would be suited. 1941R. Keyes in Hansard CCCLXXVI. 661 Among other executive responsibilities of my office were included the raising, organising and training of the special service troops now known as Commandos. 1942‘G. Orwell’ in Partisan Rev. July–Aug. 277 The rightwing papers..suggest that we can tie down a million troops along the coast of Europe by continuous commando raids. 1943Southeast Economist (Chicago) 11 Mar. 1/1 Joseph Arlia..will..go back to the South Pacific as a commando. 1943Chicago Sun 17 Dec. 1/8 A small American Commando force, paddling toward shore in rubber boats..was sacrificed to a merciless barrage. 1943Combined Operations (Min. of Information) i. 11 Lieutenant-Colonel D. W. Clarke..produced the outline of a scheme... The men for this type of irregular warfare should, he suggested, be formed into units to be known as Commandos... Nor was the historical parallel far-fetched. After the victories of Roberts and Kitchener had scattered the Boer army, the guerrilla tactics of its individual units (which were styled ‘Commandos’)..prevented decisive victory... His [sc. Lt.-Col. D. W. Clarke's] ideas were accepted; so also, with some hesitation, was the name Commando. Ibid. 14 When they reach their Commando Units they..perform considerable feats of endurance. 1945Penguin New Writing XXIII. 11 Here I am, conning a shipload of one hundred and four hefty Commandos. 1956A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 224 Anglo-Norwegian commandos made two daring night raids on the Norsk plant. 1958Jane's Fighting Ships 1958–59 p. v/1 The aircraft carrier Bulwark is being converted into a commando carrier. 1960C. Day Lewis Buried Day 93 Commando-type training. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 5 Feb. 11/1 Two South Vietnamese drivers employed by the U.S. Embassy apparently helped a Viet Cong commando squad invade the embassy grounds last Tuesday morning.
b. transf. and fig.
1942Time 16 Feb. 32/1 Comrade Shvernik and his 13 comrade commandos prepared for the trip home. 1957Times Lit. Suppl. 22 Nov. 705/1 The concept of a commando-group of beginners,..raiding campus and quad alike, is one associated almost entirely with signed reviewing. 1958New Statesman 8 Mar. 291/1 A Fascist ‘commando’ broke up a public meeting in Marseilles. 1968Observer 7 Jan. 1/3 Detectives watching the screens were linked by pocket radio to plainclothes members of a ‘commando’ squad standing by ready to make arrests.
▸ slang (orig. U.S.). to go commando: to wear no underpants (beneath one's clothing).
The origin of this use is obscure; the allusion appears to be to commandos' reputation for action, toughness, or resourcefulness rather than to any specific practice.
1974Current U.N.C. Slang (Univ. N. Carolina, Chapel Hill) (typescript) Spring Go commando, to be without underwear. 1985Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 22 Jan. c, Colored briefs are ‘sleazy’ and going without underwear (‘going commando’, as they say on campus) is simply gross. 2001Guardian 7 June ii. 8/2 Thank goodness he wasn't wearing a pair of sagging Y-fronts or, much worse, a thong. Thank goodness he wasn't going commando. 2004J. Evanovich Ten Big Ones 186 Unless Ranger kept his underwear in his safe, it appeared that he went commando. |