This may sound kind of dumb, but what is that (sic) for when people quote things other people said?
It’s when you are quoting somebody and they have made an error and you reognize the error and want the reader to know that you did not make it.
For example, I found this note written by a roommate of mine on the couch. It read
“I fucken [sic] wicked love you and I’m thinking of you.”
It means that I KNOW that there is a misspelled word, but the original author misspelled it.
Man, that was a dumb note.
“It’s when you are quoting somebody and they make an error and you reognize [sic] the error and want the reader to know you didn’t make it.”
It’s also if the original author chose to spell something differently.
Not just spelling errors, either-
they might hav a date wrong or something…
sic is Latin for ‘thus’. It is used when quoting to indicate an error (intentional or not) that might otherwise be mistaken for an editing error (most often spelling), i.e. ‘thus’ to indicate “that’s how the original is, I’m just reporting it”.It’s not normally used to indicate other than a potential editing error, so you might see :
“We don’t want to obsfuscate[sic] the issues.”
but you wouldn’t use it with :
“My father helped me with state capitals in Third Grade. So I’ve got it down, ‘Seattle’”
Has anyone read the book called (sic) by Sean Landers? It’s… different.
An interesting thing to look for is [sic] being used to make someone look bad, while quietly correcting the statements of others that are being made to look good. For example, note the difference between:
Harry said: “I seen [sic] with my own eyes for who [sic] it was being sent”.
vs.
Harry said: “I [saw] with my own eyes for [whom] it was being sent.”
Just so you know, I’ve seen people misusing [sic] around here lately (mostly in the Pit).
Oh, and the square brackets generally indicate editorial comment, rather than author’s intention.
Also, remember John Wilkes Booth’s immortal words as he leapt onto the stage of Ford’s Theater after shooting President Lincoln:
“Sic semper tyrannus!”
Thus always to tyrants!
So when I tell my dog to “Sic 'im,” it means, from Latin, “Thus him?”
sic transit gloria mundi
Different sic. Not Latin, but “a dialectical variant of seek” with an Old English root.
I always thought it meant “spelled intentionally crappy.” Well, ya learn somthing new every day!
I always thought it was a latin abbreviation for “Let it stand.” The s, i, and c each stands for a latin word and has nothing to do with the word “sic” meaning “thus.”
Let it stand is “stet” – usually when an editor crossed something out and then changes mind about it.
sic itur ad astra…
And as Crazy Joe Davola proclaimed as he jumped Seinfeld as he was taping his pilot.
I recently was filling out our weekly football pool, specifically a guess for the total points scored in a certain game. I wrote 1 [sic], to show that it was not a typo for 10, or 31, or something. I gather this usage is incorrect as I was not requoting. How do you indicate “not a typo”: “1. No, really, 1. Yah, just that:1 The page after 1 intentionally left blank” ?
I didn’t know Gloria was sick!
You might try -1- although the “rules” dictate numbers smaller than eleven are to be spelled out to prevent this sort of confusion.