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 commodate, but of a loan; in regard they may be returned in kind, though not in identity. See Law, Part III. No. clxxiii. 8.