from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
DONATION INTER Vivos, contracts. A contract which takes place by the mutual
consent, of the giver, who divests himself of the thing given in order to
transmit the title of it to the donee gratuitously, and the donee, who
accepts the thing and acquires a legal title to it.
2. This donation takes place when the giver is not in any immediate
apprehension of death, which distinguishes it from a donatio mortis causa.
(q.v.) 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 712. And see Civ. Code of Lo. art. 1453 Justin.
Inst. lib. 2, tit. 7, Sec. 2 Coop. Justin. notes 474-5 Johns. Dig. N. Y.
Rep. tit. Gift.