sic

English Online Dictionary. What means sic‎? What does sic mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɪk
• Homophones: sick, Sikh (one pronunciation)

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin sīc (“thus, so”).

Adverb

sic (not comparable)

1. Thus; as written; used to indicate, for example, that text is being quoted as it is from the source.
2. (by extension) Used in the manner of scare quotes

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:

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

Verb

sic (third-person singular simple present sics, present participle siccing, simple past and past participle sicced)

1. To mark with a bracketed sic.

Etymology 2

Variant of seek.

Alternative forms

• sick
• sicc

Verb

sic (third-person singular simple present sics, present participle siccing, simple past and past participle sicced)

1. (transitive) To incite an attack by, especially a dog or dogs.
2. (transitive) To set upon; to chase; to attack.

Usage notes

• The sense of “set upon” is most commonly used as an imperative, in a command to an animal.

Translations

References

See also

• sic bo (etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

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

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin sīc (“thus, so”).

Pronunciation

Adverb

sic

1. 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

• IPA^(key): /sik/

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.

Latin

Alternative forms

• sīce (non-apocopated)
• seic (standard in Republican spelling)
• seice

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

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

Adverb

sīc (not comparable)

1. thus, so, like this, in this way
   1. as stated or as follows, to this effect
   2. (as a correlative to ut, quōmodo etc.)
   3. (with restrictive or conditional force, also with ut or nē)
   4. 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^[5], London: Macmillan and Co.
• sic in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[6], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *sīk, from Proto-Germanic *sīką.

Noun

sīċ m or n

1. a watercourse, stream

Descendants

• Middle English: sych, syk, syke
  • English: sitch, sike
  • Scots: sike, syke

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “síc”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[7], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: sic

Adverb

sic (not comparable)

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

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sic.

Adverb

sic

1. sic

Scots

Alternative forms

• sich

Etymology

From Middle English sich, from Old English swelc.

Adjective

sic (not comparable)

1. such

Pronoun

sic

1. such

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

• zȉc

Etymology

From Upper German Sitz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sît͡s/

Noun

sȉc m (Cyrillic spelling си̏ц)

1. (dialectal) seat (of a vehicle)

   Synonym: sjȅdalo

Further reading

• “sic”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2024

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsik/ [ˈsik]
• Rhymes: -ik
• Syllabification: sic

Adverb

sic

1. sic (thus; as written)

Further reading

• “sic”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28

Anagrams

• cis, cis-