sic

See also: SIC, siç, sić, and šić

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĭk, IPA^(key): /sɪk/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɪk
• Homophones: sick, Sikh (one pronunciation)

Etymology 1

From Latin sīc (“thus, so”).

Adverb

sic (not comparable)

1. Thus; thus written; used to indicate, for example, that text is being quoted as it is from the source.
   • 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)

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 [sic] 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 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”, a quotation attributed to Brutus at the assassination of Caesar, and shouted in reference by John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln)

Translations

thus, thus written

• Arabic: كَذَا (kaḏā)
• Belarusian: так (tak)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 原文如此 (yuánwén rúcǐ)

• Dutch: sic (nl)
• French: sic (fr)
• German: sic (de), so (de)
• Greek: αυτολεξεί (el) (aftolexeí)
• Italian: sic (it)
• Japanese: ママ (ja) (mama)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 원문대로 (wonmundaero)
• Persian: کذا (fa) (kazâ)
• Portuguese: sic (pt)
• Russian: так (ru) (tak)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тако

  Roman: tako (sh)

• Spanish: sic (es)
• Swedish: sic (sv), så (sv)
• Ukrainian: так (uk) (tak)

Verb

1. To mark with a bracketed sic.

   E. Belfort Bax wrote “… the modern reviewer’s taste is not really shocked by half the things he sics or otherwise castigates.”

Etymology 2

Variant of seek.

Alternative forms

• sick

Verb

1. (transitive) To incite an attack by, especially a dog or dogs.

   He sicced his dog on me!

   • 2019, Brian Merchant, “Click Here to Kill: The dark world of online murder markets”, in Harper’s Magazine‎^[1], volume 2020, number January:

     I was interviewing the victims of a harebrained scheme to sic contract killers on an innocent woman

2. (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

• Dutch: zetten (nl), aanzetten (nl), opjutten (nl)
• Finnish: usuttaa (fi)
• German: hetzen (de)
• Icelandic: siga, etja
• Navajo: bichʼįʼ yishʼá
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: szczuć (pl) impf, poszczuć pf, napuszczać impf, napuścić pf
• Russian: нау́ськивать (ru) n (naúsʹkivatʹ), натра́вливать (ru) impf (natrávlivatʹ), натрави́ть (ru) pf (natravítʹ)
• Spanish: azuzar (es)
• Turkish: (üzerine) salmak (tr), saldırtmak

set upon

• Dutch: pakken (nl)
• Navajo: bichʼįʼ dah diilyeed
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: спуска́ть (ru) impf (spuskátʹ) (кого-л.)

Anagrams

• -ics, CIS, CSI, ICS, ICs, I²Cs, SCI, Sci., cis, cis-, sci, sci.

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Dutch

Etymology

From Latin sīc (“thus, so”).

Adverb

sic

1. sic (thus)

Usage notes

Same usage notes as in English apply.

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French

Etymology

From Latin sīc (“thus, so”).

Adverb

sic

1. sic (thus)

Usage notes

Same usage notes as in English apply.

Further reading

• “sic”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /siːk/, [s̠iːk]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /sik/, [sik]

Etymology

From older sīce or seic, from sī +‎ -c, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this”). See also Latin hic, cis, sī, English he.

Adverb

sīc (not comparable)

1. thus, so, just like that
   • 45 BC, Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, Book II.42

     Ut ager, quamvis fertilis, sine cultura fructuosus esse non potest, sic sine doctrina animus.

     Just as the field, however fertile, without cultivation cannot be fruitful, ; ; ; likewise the soul without education.

2. yet
3. (Medieval Latin) yes

Synonyms

• ita

Descendants

• Aromanian: shi
• Asturian: sí
• Catalan: sí, així
• Corsican: sì
• Dalmatian: sai
• Franco-Provençal: si, -se (in asse, ense)
• English: sic
• French: si, ainsi
• Friulian: sì

• Galician: si
• Italian: sì, così
• Ladino: ansí
• Mozarabic: اَشي (así), اَشي قَا (así ke)
• Portuguese: sim, assim
• Romanian: și, așa
• Romansch: schi
• Sicilian: sì, sè, accussì
• Spanish: sí, así

Derived terms

• sic transit gloria mundi
• sic semper tyrannis

Related terms

Latin correlatives ^(edit)

type	demonstrative			anaphoric	identity	interrogative/ relative	indefinite					negative	other
	proximal	medial	distal				relative	indefinite	universal	free choice	negative polarity
basic	hic	iste, istic	ille, illic	is	ipse, īdem	quis/quī	quisquis, quīcumque	quis, quī, quīdam, aliquis, aliquī, quispiam	quisque	quīvis, quīlibet	quisquam, ūllus, °aliquisquam	nēmō, nihil, nūllus	alius
dual						uter	utercumque	alteruter	uterque	utervīs, uterlibet		neuter	alter
place	hīc	istīc	illīc	ibī̆	ibī̆dem	ubī̆	ubiubi, ubī̆cumque	alicubī, uspiam	ubīque	ubivīs, ubilibet	usquam	nusquam, nūllibī	alibī, aliās
source	hinc	istinc	illinc	inde	indidem	unde	undecumque, undeunde	alicunde	undique	°undelibet			aliunde
destination	hūc, °hōrsum	istūc, °istōrsum	illūc, °illōrsum	eō	eōdem	quō, quōrsum	quōquō, quōcumque	aliquō, quōpiam, °aliquōvorsum		quōvīs, quōlibet	quōquam	nusquam, nūllōrsum	aliō, aliōrsum
method, means, path, place	hāc	istāc	illāc	eā	eādem	quā	quāquā, quācumque	aliquā	quāque	quāvīs, quālibet		nēquāquam, haudquāquam	aliā
manner	hōc modō	istō modō	illō modō	ita, sīc, eō modō	item, itidem	ut, quī, quō modō, quōmodo, quemadmodum	utut, utcumque, quōmodocumque	quī, quōdam modō, aliquō modō	utique	quōmodolibet	ūllō modō	nūllō modō	aliter, aliōquī, alterō/aliō modō
time	num, nunc		ōlim	tum, tunc	simul	quandō, ‡cum	cumque, quandōcumque, quandōque	quondam, aliquandō	quandōque	quandōlibet	umquam	numquam	aliās
quantity				tam	†tamen, †tandem	quam	†quamquam	aliquam		quamvīs, quamlibet
size				tantus	tantusdem	quantus	quantuscumque	aliquantus		quantusvīs, quantuslibet
quality				tālis		quālis	quālis, quāliscumque	aliquālis		quālislibet
number				tot	totidem	quot	quotquot, quotcumque	aliquot		quotlibet
order				totus		quotus	quotuscumque	aliquotus		quotuslibet
repetition				totiēns		quotiēns	quotiēnscumque	aliquotiēns		quotiēnslibet
multiplication				totuplex		quotuplex
† Turned conjunction with original meaning somewhat dissimulated ° Rare ‡only used as a conjunction, not as an interrogative

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^[2], 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^[3], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN

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Portuguese

Adverb

1. sic (used to indicated that a quoted word has been transcribed exactly as found in the source text)

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Scots

Alternative forms

• sich

Adjective

sic (not comparable)

1. such

Pronoun

sic

1. such

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Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

• zȉc

Etymology

From Upper (deprecated template usage) [etyl] German Sitz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sît͡s/

Noun

sȉc m (Cyrillic spelling си̏ц)

1. (regional) seat (of a vehicle)

Synonyms

• sjȅdalo

References

• “sic” in Hrvatski jezični portal