The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Commodate \Com"mo*date\, n. [L. commodatum thing lent, loan.]
(Scots Law)
A gratuitous loan.
[1913 Webster]
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
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.