# Borrower beware



## MissLonelyHearts

Hi there,

I am designing a bookplate and I want to have 'borrower beware' written in Latin. I know that beware is 'caveat' but just wondered how to translate 'borrower' in this case.

Many thanks!


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## wandle

MissLonelyHearts said:


> 'borrower beware'


I do not know of a noun to match 'buyer', but we can use a relative clause with the subjunctive:_ caveat qui mutuatur: '_Who borrows, let him (or her) beware';
 or a  participle with the imperative: _mutuans caveto_: 'Beware when borrowing'.


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## Scholiast

salvete amici!

On the model of _caveat emptor_ one might suggest _caveat mutator.
_
Σ


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## Quiviscumque

I think MissLonelyHearts is considering a thing, not a sum of money. If it is so, the contract is not a "mutuum" but a "commodatio" and the receiver of the thing would be the "commodatarius" (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Commodatum.html). So

_Caveat commodatarius
_
If we are considering money, the lender is classically the _mutuum dans_ and the borrower the_ mutuum accipiens_; lately they are called _mutuans_ and _mutuarius_, so

_Caveat mutuarius_


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## Scholiast

salvete omnes de novo!

Quiviscumque (# 4) is of course quite right about the specifically monetary focus of _mutuari_ and its cognate substantives, silly me to overlook that.

But _commodatarius_ feels clumsy. Why not just _commodator_ / _commodans_? In fact I think I prefer the latter, with the flavour of 'Let him be careful, _even as_ he is borrowing'.

Σ

Afterthought: the alliteration adds a pleasing epigrammatic punch.


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## wandle

For _commodo_, Lewis & Short say:


> *II.* Commodare _aliquid_ (_alicui_), _to give something to one for his convenience_ or _use_, _to give_, _bestow_, _lend_


And for _commodator_:


> *I.*“in jurid. Lat.,” _a lender_, _Dig. 13, 6, 7_; _47, 2, 14_ and 55.


They do not have the word _commodatarius_.

The article in *Quiviscumque's* link makes clear that in Roman law _commodare_ is the correct technical term for lending something to be used and then returned.
However, it points out that _commadatarius_ is a modern term and the true Roman expression for the borrower is _qui rem commodatam accepit_. Even the single term might seem clumsy in an epigram.

Lewis & Short point out that _mutuor_ is also used for borrowing other things than money and not just for consumables (for which an equivalent would be returned). I still incline to _mutuans caveto_.


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