In South Africa similar troops operated in small detachments, usually traveling on horseback, and launched rapid attacks against British troops. The word was adopted into Afrikaans from interactions with the Portuguese in their nearby African colonies, in whose language the word comando means 'command'. The Dutch word Kommando, in turn, would have originated from the Portuguese term 'Comando', used in India in the sense of a group of troops under an autonomous command that performed special missions during a battle or siege. This term originally referred to units of Boer mounted infantry, who fought during the Xhosa Wars and the First and Second Boer Wars. The term commando originally derives from Latin commendare, to recommend, via the Dutch word kommando, which translates as 'a command or order' and also roughly to 'mobile infantry regiment'.
