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Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any erroneous, archaic, or otherwise nonstandard spelling,
punctuation Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...
, or
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
. It also applies to any surprising assertion, faulty reasoning, or other matter that might be interpreted as an error of transcription. The typical usage is to inform the reader that any errors or apparent errors in quoted material do not arise from errors in the course of the transcription, but are intentionally reproduced, exactly as they appear in the source text. It is generally placed inside square brackets to indicate that it is not part of the quoted matter. ''Sic'' may also be inserted derisively or sarcastically, to call attention to the original writer's spelling mistakes or erroneous logic, or to show general disapproval or dislike of the material.


Etymology and historical usage

Though occasionally misidentified as an abbreviated word, ''sic'' is a Latin adverb used in English as an adverb, and, derivatively, as a noun and a verb."sic, adv. (and n.)" ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Second Edition 1989.
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
The
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
''sic'', meaning "intentionally so written", first appeared in English circa 1856.sic.
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary
'. Merriam-Webster, 2003. , . (p.1156)
It is derived from the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
adverb ''sīc'', which means "so, thus, in this manner". According to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'', the verbal form of ''sic'', meaning "to mark with a ''sic''", emerged in 1889,
E. Belfort Bax Ernest Belfort Bax (; 23 July 1854 – 26 November 1926) was an English barrister, journalist, philosopher, men's rights advocate, socialist, and historian. Biography Ernest Belfort Bax was born on 23 July 1854, in Leamington Spa, son of Da ...
work in ''The Ethics of Socialism'' being an early example.


False etymologies

On occasion, ''sic'' has been misidentified as an
acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
(and therefore sometimes misspelled with periods): "s.i.c." is said to stand for "spelled in context", "said in context", "said in copy", "spelling is correct", "spelled incorrectly", and other such
folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
phrases. These are all incorrect and are simply
backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...
s from ''sic''.


Modern usage

Use of ''sic'' greatly increased in the mid-20th century.
Bryan A. Garner Bryan Andrew Garner (born 1958) is an American lawyer, lexicographer, and teacher who has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style such as ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' for a general audience, and others for legal profe ...
.
The Oxford dictionary of American usage and style
'. Oxford University Press US, 2000. ,
For example, in
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
state-court opinions before 1944, ''sic'' appeared 1,239 times in the
Westlaw Westlaw is an online legal research service and proprietary database for lawyers and legal professionals available in over 60 countries. Information resources on Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of case law, state and federal statute ...
database; in those from 1945 to 1990, it appeared 69,168 times, over 55 times as many. Its use as a form of ridicule has been cited as a major factor in this increase. The immoderate use of ''sic'' has created some controversy, leading some editors, including bibliographical scholar Simon Nowell-Smith and literary critic
Leon Edel Joseph Leon Edel (9 September 1907 – 5 September 1997) was an American/Canadian literary critic and biographer. He was the elder brother of North American philosopher Abraham Edel. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' calls Edel "the foremo ...
, to speak out against it.


Conventional use

''Sic'', in its bracketed form, is most often inserted into quoted or reprinted material to indicate meticulous accuracy in reproducing the preceding text, despite appearances to the reader of an incorrect or unusual
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
(
spelling Spelling is a set of conventions that regulate the way of using graphemes (writing system) to represent a language in its written form. In other words, spelling is the rendering of speech sound (phoneme) into writing (grapheme). Spelling is one ...
,
punctuation Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...
, grammar, syntax, fact, logic, etc.).Grammar and Style
" ''USD History Guide for Writing Research Papers''. Department of History, University of South Dakota. 6/12/2009
Several usage guides recommend that a bracketed ''sic'' be used primarily as an aid to the reader, not as an indicator of disagreement with the source.


Use to denote archaisms and dialect

''Sic'' may show that an uncommon or archaic expression is reported faithfully, such as when quoting the
U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...
: "The House of Representatives shall their Speaker ..." However, several writing guidebooks discourage its use with regard to dialect, such as in cases of
American and British English spelling differences Despite the various List of dialects of English, English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variatio ...
. The appearance of a bracketed ''sic'' after the word '' analyse'' in a book review led
Bryan A. Garner Bryan Andrew Garner (born 1958) is an American lawyer, lexicographer, and teacher who has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style such as ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' for a general audience, and others for legal profe ...
to comment, "all the quoter (or overzealous editor) icdemonstrated was ignorance of British usage".


Ironic use

Occasionally a writer places 'sic''after their own words, to indicate that the language has been chosen deliberately for special effect, especially where the writer's ironic meaning may otherwise be unclear.H. W. Fowler (2001) ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage''. Oxford : Oxford University Press, p. 807.
Bryan A. Garner Bryan Andrew Garner (born 1958) is an American lawyer, lexicographer, and teacher who has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style such as ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' for a general audience, and others for legal profe ...
dubbed this use of ''sic'' "ironic", providing the following example from
Fred Rodell Fred Rodell (March 1, 1907 – June 4, 1980) was an American law professor most famous for his critiques of the U.S. legal profession. A professor at Yale Law School for more than forty years, Rodell was described in 1980 as the "bad boy of Amer ...
1955 book ''Nine Men'':


Formatting

Where ''sic'' follows the quotation, it takes
bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
s: 'sic'' The word ''sic'' is usually treated as a
loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
that does not require italics, and the style manuals of New Zealand, Australian and British media outlets generally do not require italicisation. However, italicization is common in the United States, where authorities including ''
APA Style APA style (also known as APA format) is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books. It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences, including sociol ...
'' insist upon it. Because ''sic'' is not an abbreviation, placing a
full stop The full stop (Commonwealth English), period (North American English), or full point , is a punctuation mark. It is used for several purposes, most often to mark the end of a declarative sentence (as distinguished from a question or exclamation ...
/period inside the brackets after the word ''sic'' is erroneous, although the California Style Manual suggests styling it as a parenthetical sentence only when used after a complete sentence, like so: ''(Sic.)''


Alternatives


Replacement

Some guides, including ''
The Chicago Manual of Style ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' (abbreviated in writing as ''CMOS'' or ''CMS'', or sometimes as ''Chicago'') is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 17 editions have prescribed writi ...
'', recommend "quiet
copy-editing Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual of ...
" (unless where inappropriate or uncertain) instead of inserting a bracketed ''sic'', such as by substituting in brackets the correct word in place of the incorrect word or by simply replacing an incorrect spelling with the correct one.


''Recte''

Alternatively, to show both the original and the suggested correction (as they often are in
palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") ...
), one may give the actual form, followed by ''recte'', then the correct form, in brackets. The Latin adverb ''recte'' means ''rightly''. According to the ''Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music Style Sheet'', there should be no punctuation, for example no colon, before the correct form when using ''recte''.Bruce Gustafson.
JSCM Style Sheet
'. Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, 2 January 2010.


Read

A third alternative is to follow an error with ''sic'', a comma or colon, "read", and the correct reading, all within square brackets, as in the following example:


See also

*
Dictated but not read "Dictated but not read" is a phrase used at the end of a text to warn that the written material has not been personally written or verified by the author. The material may have been dictated to a secretary when the author had no time to proofread ...
*
Evidentiality In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement; that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and if so, what kind. An evidential (also verificational or validational) is the particul ...
*
Irony punctuation Irony punctuation is any form of notation proposed or used to denote irony or sarcasm in text. Written English lacks a standard way to mark irony, and several forms of punctuation have been proposed. Among the oldest and most frequently attest ...
*
List of Latin phrases __NOTOC__ This is a list of Wikipedia articles of Latin phrases and their translation into English. ''To view all phrases on a single, lengthy document, see: List of Latin phrases (full)'' The list also is divided alphabetically into twenty page ...
*
Qere and Ketiv Qere and Ketiv, from the Aramaic ''qere'' or ''q're'', ("hat isread") and ''ketiv'', or ''ketib'', ''kethib'', ''kethibh'', ''kethiv'', ("hat iswritten"), also known as "q're uchsiv" or "q're uchtiv," refers to a system for marking differences b ...
*
Scare quotes Scare quotes (also called shudder quotes,Pinker, Steven. ''The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century''. Penguin (2014) sneer quotes, and quibble marks) are quotation marks that writers place around a word o ...
*
viz. The abbreviation ''viz.'' (or ''viz'' without a full stop) is short for the Latin , which itself is a contraction of the Latin phrase ''videre licet'', meaning "it is permitted to see". It is used as a synonym for "namely", "that is to say", "to ...


References

{{Wiktionary pipe, sic#Etymology_1, sic Latin words and phrases