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Thus; as written; used to indicate, for example, that text is being quoted as it is from the source.
1909 January 28, H. E. Wilkie Young, “Notes on the City of Mosul” (despatch No. 4), in Foreign Office, volume 195, number 2308; quoted in Elie Khadouri, “Mosul in 1909”, in Middle Eastern Studies, volume 7, number 2, 1971, →JSTOR, page 229:
When it is all over they merge and go in a body to visit [...] the Telegraph Office – with plausible expressions of regret and excuses for the mob ‘which’ they say ‘is deplorably ignorant and will not be restrained when its feelings are strongly moved’ – sic, the fact being that the mob’s feelings will never be ‘moved’ unless it is by one of them.
2003, Monika Fludernik, The Fictions of Language and the Languages of Fiction, Routledge, →ISBN, page 468:
Bolinger, Dwight (1977) ‘Pronoun and repeated nouns.’ Lingua18:1-34 [Quoted sic in Toolan 1990. Neither in Lingua 18, nor in the 1977 volume of that journal.]
2006, Christina Scull with Wayne G. Hammond, JRR Tolkien companion & guide, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN:
Joseph Wright, his predecessor in the chair, called him ‘a firstrate Scholar and a kind of man who will easily make friends’ at Oxford (quoted, sic, in E.M. Wright, The Life of Joseph Wright (1932), p. 483).
2010, Paul Booth, Digital Fandom: New Media Studies, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 127:
Jim’s Interests: General: Working out, hanging out at the local bars, expanding my mind, eating Tuna Sandwhiches...or so I’m told and poker... Television: ... this show that’s on Thuresday nights at 8 :30pm... I can’t place the name of it but it has this crazy interview style thing...[all sic]
2012, Milton J. Bates, The Bark River Chronicles: Stories from a Wisconsin Watershed, Wisconsin Historical Society, →ISBN, page 271:
whole bussiness: Quoted sic in George F. Willison, Saints and Strangers (New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1945)
1979 December 29, Vern Hall-Smith, “Fundamentalists March”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 23, page 5:
In the past few months, we in Upstate N.Y. have been subjected to fire bombings, firings, verbal and physical harassment, etc. The list goes on and on. These (sic) Christians are calling for a million marchers and may very well get that many.
Usage notes
Sic is frequently used to indicate that an error or apparent error of spelling, grammar, or logic has been quoted faithfully; for instance, quoting the U.S. Constitution:
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker ...
Sic is often set off from surrounding text by parentheses or brackets, which sometimes enclose additional notes, as:
1884, James Grant, Cassell’s old and new Edinburgh, page 99:
This I may say of her, to which all that saw her will bear record, that her only countenance moved [sic, meaning that its expression alone was touching], although she had not spoken a word […]
Because it is not an abbreviation, it does not require a following period.
Related terms
sic pro(used to note the error and supply the supposed intended phrasing)
sic passim(used to indicate that the preceding word, phrase, or term is used in the same manner (or form) throughout the remainder of a text)
1887 May 7, E. Belfort Bax, “On Some Forms of Modern Cant”, in Commonweal:
The fact is, of course, that the modern reviewer’s taste is not really shocked by half the things he sics or otherwise castigates, but he must find something to say and above all make a slow of purism.
Sic is frequently used to indicate that an error or apparent error of spelling, grammar, or logic has been quoted faithfully. In Flanders, it is also used to quote derogatory terms in a formal context.
‘Ik heb begrepen dat ik “geoordeeld” (sic) zal worden door de geschiedenis, ik veronderstel dat we dat allemaal ooit zullen ondergaan.’
- French-speaking journalist Alexandre Penasse is quoted by newspaper De Standaard making a mistake against the Dutch language, as it is clear from the context that he meant “veroordeeld”. 19/02/2022.
“Thus, in this way it pleases me to pass beneath the shadows.” (Dido’s final words include the doubly emphatic “sic, sic”; translations vary. Servius the Grammarian, in his Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil, understood it as the moment Dido falls upon the sword of Aeneas.)
“sic”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“sic”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
sic in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
that is the way of the world; such is life: sic vita hominum est
the facts are these; the matter stands thus: res ita est, ita (sic) se habet
convince yourself of this; rest assured on this point: sic habeto
convince yourself of this; rest assured on this point: sic volo te tibi persuadere
to represent a thing dramatically: sic exponere aliquid, quasi agatur res (non quasi narretur)
anger is defined as a passionate desire for revenge: iracundiam sic (ita) definiunt, ut ulciscendi libidinem esse dicant or ut u. libido sit or iracundiam sic definiunt, ulc. libidinem
I felt quite at home in his house: apud eum sic fui tamquam domi meae (Fam. 13. 69)
sic in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN
I'd gie my ſhoon frae aff my feet, / To taſte ſic fruit, I ſwear, man. / Syne let us pray, auld England may / Sure plant this far-famed tree, man; / And blythe we'll ſing, and hail the day / That gave us liberty, man.