COMMODATUM, in the civil law, the loan or free concession of any thing moveable or immoveable, for a certain time, on condition of restoring again the same individual, thing, or subject, 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 commodate, but only of loan, because they may be returned in kind, though not in identity.