sic
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English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sɪk/
Audio (UK) (file) Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪk
- Homophones: sick, Sikh (one pronunciation)
Etymology 1
Learned borrowing from Latin sīc (“thus, so”).
Adverb
sic (not comparable)
- 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.
- 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)
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)
- sic transit gloria mundi (fame is temporary; lit. “so passes the glory of the world”)
- sic semper tyrannis (“thus always to tyrants”, and shouted by John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln)
Translations
thus, thus written
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Verb
sic (third-person singular simple present sics, present participle siccing, simple past and past participle sicced)
- To mark with a bracketed sic.
- 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.
Etymology 2
Variant of seek.
Alternative forms
Verb
sic (third-person singular simple present sics, present participle siccing, simple past and past participle sicced)
- (transitive) To incite an attack by, especially a dog or dogs.
- He sicced his dog on me!
- 1992, Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown, →ISBN:
- Phreaks can max-out 911 systems just by siccing a bunch of computer-modems on them in tandem, dialling them over and over until they clog.
- (transitive) To set upon; to chase; to attack.
- Sic ’em, Mitzi.
Usage notes
- The sense of “set upon” is most commonly used as an imperative, in a command to an animal.
Translations
incite an attack by
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set upon
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References
- ^ “sic, adv. (and n.)” Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition 1989. Oxford University Press.
See also
- sic bo (etymologically unrelated)
Anagrams
Dutch
Etymology
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Adverb
sic
- sic (thus)
Usage notes
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.
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin sīc (“thus, so”). Doublet of si.
Pronunciation
Adverb
sic
- sic (thus)
Usage notes
Same usage notes as in English apply.
Further reading
- “sic”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
Latin
Alternative forms
Etymology
Regular apocope of sīce, from sī + -ce, from Proto-Indo-European *só (“this, that”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱe- (“demonstrative particle”). See also components for cognates.
Pronunciation
Adverb
sīc (not comparable)
- thus, so, like this, in this way
- c. 45 BCE, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 2.13:
- Ut ager, quamvīs fertilis, sine cultūrā frūctuōsus esse nōn potest, sīc sine doctrīnā animus.
- Just as the field, however fertile, without cultivation cannot be fruitful, likewise the soul without education.
- Ut ager, quamvīs fertilis, sine cultūrā frūctuōsus esse nōn potest, sīc sine doctrīnā animus.
- 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.660:
- “Sīc, sīc iuvat īre sub umbrās.”
- “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.)
- “Thus, in this way it pleases me to pass beneath the shadows.”
- “Sīc, sīc iuvat īre sub umbrās.”
- as stated or as follows, to this effect
- (as a correlative to ut, quōmodo etc.)
- (with restrictive or conditional force, also with ut or nē)
- in such a (good or bad) way, like that, so much
Synonyms
Derived terms
Derived terms
- sīcin(e) (“intensified interrogative sīc”)
- sīcut(i) (“as”)
- sīc trānsit glōria mundī
- sīc semper tyrannīs
- ut sīc dīcam (“so to speak”)
Related terms
Descendants
References
- “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)
- that is the way of the world; such is life: sic vita hominum est
- 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
Portuguese
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: sic
Adverb
sic (not comparable)
- sic (used to indicate that a quoted word has been transcribed exactly as found in the source text)
Romanian
Etymology
Adverb
sic
Scots
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English sich, from Old English swelc.
Adjective
sic (not comparable)
- such
- 1869, Robert Burns, “The Tree of Liberty”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume III (Posthumous Poems) (in English), Kilmarnock, Scotland: James M‘Kie, →OCLC, page 360:
- 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.
Pronoun
sic
Serbo-Croatian
Alternative forms
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
sȉc m (Cyrillic spelling си̏ц)
Further reading
- “sic” in Hrvatski jezični portal
Spanish
Pronunciation
Adverb
sic
- sic (thus; as written)
Further reading
- “sic”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014