Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. Thus; so. Used to indicate that a quoted passage, especially one containing an error or unconventional spelling, has been retained in its original form or written intentionally.
- v. To set upon; attack.
- v. To urge or incite to hostile action; set: sicced the dogs on the intruders.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- A Scotch form of such.
- So; thus: a word often inserted within brackets in quoted matter after an erroneous word or date, an astonishing statement, or the like, as an assurance that the citation is an exact reproduction of the original: as, “It was easily [sic] to see that he was angry.”
- A call to pigs or to sheep.
- See sick.
- n. An abbreviation of Sicilian
- n. of Sicily.
Wiktionary
- adv. thus; thus written
- v. To mark with a bracketed sic."sic, adv. (and n.)" Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition 1989. Oxford University Press.
- v. To incite an attack by, especially a dog or dogs.
- v. To set upon; to chase; to attack.
GNU Webster's 1913
WordNet 3.0
- v. urge to attack someone
- adv. intentionally so written (used after a printed word or phrase)
Etymologies
- Latin sīc; see so- in Indo-European roots.Dialectal variant of seek.
Examples
“Seneca the Younger: You're correct that in Latin 'sic' means 'thus'; however, in editing, 'sic' means 'it was wrong in the original and I'm anal enough to point that out to you in case you missed that horrendous grammatical/spelling error.”
“Sen. Kyle [sic] is a long-standing senator from Arizona and expert on immigration.”
The Huffington Post: Terry Krepel: A Laughable, Error-Ridden 'Case for Impeachment'
“How these data trouble Professor Hospital's claim that Columbia students are the "cream of the cream [sic]" is a subject for further debate.”
The Huffington Post: Seth Abramson: Columbia Professor's E-mail to Students Was Pure Fiction
“Los Angeles County is 40 percent Roman Catholic, and 95 percent Christain [sic], and yet these percentages are not reflected in the ethnic diversity of judges in the Los Angeles Superior Court.”
““One estimate by Lewin Associates [sic] is 131 million Americans will lose their private insurance and be pushed into a government plan,” he claimed.”
Heads up staffers, tips to avoid a Health Care "Town Hell" (Blog for Democracy)
“Ahh the justification of hyprocisy [sic] is always so transparent.”
““Nineteen Eighty-Four: and the Via Dolorosa Project” [sic] is a documentary that centers around a painting the Singh Twins did that was meant to memorialize the Sikh massacre of 1984.”
“It is to the far right of Reagan, who raised taxes and eventually cut defense, and helped reform social security to ensure its longterm sic viability.”
The Huffington Post: Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [140] -- Pledging Nonsense
“It is an illusion that fixates on stuff the GOP already should be doing while not daring to touch on stuff that will have any meaningful longterm sic effects on the size and scope of the federal government.”
The Huffington Post: Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [140] -- Pledging Nonsense
“But could someone pleaes explain what [sic] is supposed to mean, is it for clarifying errors in spelling, grammar, or context.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sic’.
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metaphoric references to dogs
As an ongoing part of my project, Dogs in Metaphor and Idiom, Illustrated, (www.metaphordogs.org) I am continually adding terms. If you know a term that fi...
dog, alpha male, at bay, bark, bird dog, bitch, bitchin, bloodhound, bulldog, canaille, canines, cerberus and 130 more...
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henryar's list
marmoleum, menagerie, cyan, ochre, pilfer, discombobulate, loquacious, iridescent, amethyst, derelict, botulism, equilibrium and 240 more...
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H.Incandenza's list
kertwang, converge, lynchism, utilitarianism, hornswoggle, abide, omniscience, unctuous, sanctimonious, vespertine, vicarious, sic and 4 more...
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Pop Latin
Commonly used Latin expressions
viva voce, vide supre, vide, supra, stet, status quo, sine qua non, sine die, sic, quid pro quo, pro rata, pro bono and 24 more...
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Neologistics
Basically this is a "words about words" list with a focus on neologism generation in all its various forms.
wordplay, paronomasia, madeupical, logodaedaly, onomatopoeic, verbification, nominalization, recontextualization, spoonerism, typo recycling, sloganeer, wordsmith and 59 more...
yarb "She's probably sicced the pols and nats both on me."
- P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. Mar 25, 2012
dontcry "Mommy, I feel sic...hooooork." Jul 27, 2009
milosrdenstvi Caesar sic in omnibus. Jul 27, 2009
chained_bear Sic semper tyrannis. Jul 27, 2009
PossibleUnderscore Sic transit gloria mundi. Jul 27, 2009
amacleod03 (verb) To urge or incite to hostile action, as in siccing dogs upon someone. In a metaphoric sense, any time someone is ordered to go after another. There is an implication that the purpose is to do harm to the object of siccing, not simply to dissuade or drive off. Jul 26, 2009
mikeropology I lub sic this word! Nov 29, 2007