commandon.
/kəˈmɑːndəʊ/, /kəˈmandəʊ/, U.S. /kəˈmændoʊ/ 1. South African.
a. An armed and usually mounted party of men, typically civilians, mustered, esp. against indigenous peoples, for forays, reprisals, and the recovery of stolen cattle; an expedition undertaken by such a party. Now historical. See also quot. 1791.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > attack > raid > [noun]
roadeOE
skeck1297
chevacheec1380
forayc1400
reisea1450
raid1455
bodrag1537
skeg1542
reid1544
inroad1548
outroad1560
excursion1577
excurse1587
bodraging1590
cavalcade1591
chevachance1592
chivancy1616
algaradea1649
course1651
outrakea1765
commando1791
razzia1821
muru1836
chappow1860
night raid1872
society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > group with special function or duty > [noun]
conreyc1330
partyc1330
stalec1350
stuff1412
crew1455
working party1744
draft1756
draught1780
commando1791
detail1862
otriad1916
taskforce1927
stick1953
society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > group with special function or duty > [noun] > for expedition
forec900
expedition1693
commando1834
1791 G. Carter Narr. Loss Grosvenor xl. 150 ‘A colonist,’ says he [sc. Le 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.’
1809 R. 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.
1834 T. Pringle Afr. Sketches xiv. 435 The boors made commandoes on our fathers.
1834 T. Pringle Afr. Sketches xiv. 458 The old wretched policy of military reprisals—the commando system.
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 9 May 3/2 The presence of a commando of several hundred respectable Boers in Central Zululand.
1885 Athenæum 15 Aug. 201 The capture..of native children by the Dutch commandos.
1952 E. H. Burrows Overberg Outspan ii. 34 An armed commando sixty strong.
1966 E. 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. on (also upon) commando, on militia service in the Boer army; engaged in a commando.
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society > armed hostility > military operations > [adverb]
in the field?1473
a warfare1483
on (also upon) commando1824
1824 W. J. Burchell Trav. Interior S. Afr. II. 111 The master himself was at this time absent on the Commando, or militia-service, against the Caffres in the Zuureveld.
1837 J. E. Alexander Narr. Voy. Observ. W. Afr. xv. 380 The colonists..disliked..going on commando into Kaffir-land to recover stolen property.
1879 Chambers's Jrnl. 344/1 All the men capable of bearing arms were then on commando.
1899 Daily News 30 Sept. 5/3 Burghers refusing to go on commando.
1900 R. Kipling 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 attributive.
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society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > unit of army > [noun] > division > foreign
seraglio1600
banner1842
goum1845
ban1866
commando1899
1899 Westm. Gaz. 11 Nov. 8/1 The President..has the right of declaring war and calling up one or more commandos.
1900 R. Kipling in Daily Express 13 June 4/5 We kept our commando-horses ready for six months.
1902 Encycl. 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.
1902 Daily Chron. 16 June 5/5 Burghers..all thronging into the commando trains.
3.
a. A member of a body of picked men trained originally (in1940) 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 attributive and in other combinations.
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society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by branch of army > [noun] > storm-trooper or commando
shock trooper1918
storm trooper1918
commando1940
1940 W. 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.
1941 R. 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 277 The rightwing papers..suggest that we can tie down a million troops along the coast of Europe by continuous commando raids.
1943 Southeast Economist (Chicago) 11 Mar. 1/1 Joseph Arlia..will..go back to the South Pacific as a commando.
1943 Chicago Sun 17 Dec. 1/8 A small American Commando force, paddling toward shore in rubber boats..was sacrificed to a merciless barrage.
1943 Combined 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.
1943 Combined Operations (Min. of Information) i. 14 When they reach their Commando Units they..perform considerable feats of endurance.
1945 Penguin New Writing 23 11 Here I am, conning a shipload of one hundred and four hefty Commandos.
1956 A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 224 Anglo-Norwegian commandos made two daring night raids on the Norsk plant.
1958 Jane's Fighting Ships 1958–59 p. v/1 The aircraft carrier Bulwark is being converted into a commando carrier.
1960 C. Day Lewis Buried Day 93 Commando-type training.
1968 Globe & 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. transferred and figurative.
ΚΠ
1942 Time 16 Feb. 32/1 Comrade Shvernik and his 13 comrade commandos prepared for the trip home.
1957 Times 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.
1958 New Statesman 8 Mar. 291/1 A Fascist ‘commando’ broke up a public meeting in Marseilles.
1968 Observer 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.
Draft additions September 2006
slang (originally 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.
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1974 Current U.N.C. Slang (Univ. N. Carolina, Chapel Hill) (typescript) Spring Go commando, to be without underwear.
1985 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 22 Jan. c Colored briefs are ‘sleazy’ and going without underwear (‘going commando’, as they say on campus) is simply gross.
2001 Guardian 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.
2004 J. Evanovich Ten Big Ones 186 Unless Ranger kept his underwear in his safe, it appeared that he went commando.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1791