I think it may originally be a French word. In Dutch, ‘commandant’ translates as commander. I believe that in the South African army the rank of major does not exist. A company commander is a commandant. JMA may confirm or correct me on this. For the UK marines a commando is the equivalent of a battalion.
The USMC may well have (just guessing here) picked the word up from the Dutch or Spanish Marine Corps, which are among the oldest in the world.
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