I’ve seen a couple of threads where some text was quoted from somewhere and the following was used in the quote: [sic].
Maybe I’m just inexperienced. Maybe I’m just uneducated or even just plain dense, but WHAT does [sic] mean and why is it used in a direct quotation?
“sic” is a Latin word that means “thus” or “in this way”.
It’s inserted in quotations to indicate that whoever is doing the quoting knows that there is a spelling or grammatical error in the quotation, and the text came “in this way”.
Studi
It means “duh, I know this is misspelled or grammatically incorrect, but I’m doing the honorable thing here and quoting the author verbatim rather than correcting the error.”
What it DOESN’T mean is:
‘Did I spell this right?’
I’m seeing it misused like that less than a few months ago, but it’s still permenantly engraved as a pet peeve.
Those of us who have impeckibble speeling[sic] don’t need to use it very often.
Or, less charitably, it means “The person I’m quoting is an idiot. I’m going to leave in all of his spelling, grammar, and usage errors to prove what an idiot he is.”
If I’m not sure how to spell something I use (sp?) to show that I know it’s probably not right but I’m too lazy to look it up…
The Ame. Her. Dic. says “sic adv. Thus; so. Used in written texts to indicate that a surprising or paradoxical word, phrase, or fact is not a mistake and is to be read as it stands.”
Using it to point out spelling errors is probably a new thing that has developed along with usenet.
Or more likely for text media, “Don’t complain to the author/editor about this spelling/grammar error, complain to the source being quoted if you must.”
Here is a thread where a clever & dashing young poster lists many such abbreviations that frequently appear in standard writing.
It’s not an abbreviation; it’s a word. Haven’t you ever heard the phrase “sic semper tyrannis”?
sic transit gloria mundi
or, as my kids say,
if the bus is broke, we don’t have to go to school on Monday
Thanks for the link, Attrayant. I tried doing a search for “sic”, but it returned nothing.
ab·bre·vi·a·tion (-brv-shn)
n. Abbr. abbr., abbrev.
1.The act or product of shortening.
2.A shortened form of a word or phrase used chiefly in writing to represent the complete form […]
I think that “sic” qualifies as an abbreviation in the sense that it the product of shortening. Of course, by that definition, brownies also qualify as an abbreviation.
Sic 'em, Bruno!
A product of the shortening of what word?
…as in, “If you eat too much shortening, you’ll get sic”? 
What I can’t figure out, is that sometimes I’ll see “sic” and it doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with the quote. Is my spelling/grammar that bad?