Didicimus

Didicimus is the Latin verb form that corresponds to the first-person plural in the perfect tense of discere, meaning to learn or to study. In English, it is typically translated as “we learned” or “we have learned,” depending on the temporal context of the sentence.

Morphology and formation: Didicimus is the active voice, indicative mood, perfect tense form for the subject we. It is built from the perfect stem didic- combined with the personal ending -imus, which marks the first-person plural. The form is regularly used within the paradigm of discere, a third-conjugation verb meaning “to learn.”

Usage and nuance: In classical Latin, the perfect tense often denotes a completed action in the past, but it can also convey a present relevance or a narrative past, depending on context. Didicimus can appear in educational or scholarly contexts, or in narratives that recount what a group has learned. The exact translation may shift between “we learned” and “we have learned” as required by the surrounding text.

Examples: A common usage might be didicimus linguam Latinam bene, “We learned the Latin language well.” Another example could be didicimus multa ex libris, “We learned many things from the books.”

Related considerations: Didicimus is one of the most recognizable perfect forms of discere and contrasts with the present discimus (we learn) and other perfect forms for different persons and numbers. Its interpretation relies on the broader tense and aspect of the surrounding sentence.