COMMODATE, contracts. A term used in the Scotch law, which is synonymous to the Latin commodatum, or loan for use. Ersk. Inst. B. 3, t. 1, Sec. 20; 1 Bell's Com. 225; Ersk. Pr. Laws of Scotl. B. 3, t. 1, Sec. 9.
2. Judge Story regrets this term has not been adopted and naturalized, as mandate has been from mandatum. Story, Com. Sec. 221. Ayliffe, in his Pandects, has gone further, and terms the bailor the commodant, and the bailee the commodatory, thus avoiding those circumlocutions, which, in the common phraseology of our law, have become almost indispensable. Ayl. Pand. B. 4, t. 16, p. 517. Browne, in his Civil Law, vol. 1, 352, calls the property loaned "commodated property." See Borrower; Loan for use; Lender.