Dedícamos

Dedícamos is the form used as the first-person plural of the verb dedicar in some Romance languages, most commonly Latin-based languages such as Spanish and Portuguese. In contemporary standard orthography, the present-tense form is typically written as dedicamos in both languages. The accented spelling dedícamos is not standard in modern usage and may appear only in poetry, typography for emphasis, or historical texts to indicate stress.

Etymology and meaning: dedicar comes from Latin dedicare, combining de- (thoroughly, completely) with a root meaning “to dedicate” or “to set aside for a purpose.” The verb carries senses related to devoting time, effort, or resources to a task, to a person, or to a cause, as well as to the act of bestowing a dedication upon someone or something.

Usage: In Spanish, dedícamos is interpreted as “we dedicate” or “we devote (ourselves to)” depending on context, as in dedicamos nuestro tiempo a la investigación (we devote our time to research). In Portuguese, dedicamos serves the same present-tense purpose, for example dedicamos nosso tempo ao estudo (we devote our time to study). The reflexive form nos dedicamos can mean “we dedicate ourselves.” The related noun forms are dedicación (Spanish) and dedicação (Portuguese), and the phrase dedicarse a algo (Spanish) or dedicar-se a algo (Portuguese) expresses the idea of devoting oneself to something.

See also: dedication, dedicación, dedicação, dedicare, dedicar.