COMMODATE, COMMODATUM, in the civil jurisprudence, the loan or free concession of any thing moveable or immoveable, for a certain time, on condition
Commodi-
tion of restoring again the same individual after a
certain term. The commodate is a kind of loan:
there is this difference, however, between a loan and
a commodate, that the latter is gratis, and does not
transfer the property: the thing must be returned in
essence, and without impairment: so that things which
consume by use or time cannot be objects of a com-
modate, but of a loan; in regard they may be return-
ed in kind, though not in identity. See LAW, Part III.
Nº clxxxiii. 8.