sic

means "thus" or "such" or "so" in Latin

Merriam-Webster says: "intentionally so written"

written after something to indicate that's exactly how the original was written, it's not a typo

One of the many things I was not taught correctly during junior high. Our teacher told us it stood for 'spelling isn't correct', and I remember thinking to myself "uhm...isn't it Latin??"

I've heard people insist it stands for 'spelling intentionally controvertible'.

I tell these people to shove their TLA up their ASS.

A command, given most commonly to a dog (sic 'em, boy!), exhorting the animal/person to attack someone or something.

Sic in this context is actually a corruption of sick, which is in turn a variant of seek.

SIC also stands for Single Instruction Computer, this is a instruction set architecture where the is only one intruction. RISC taken to the most extreme point...

One possible instruction for such a SIC would be SBN : Substract and Branch on Negative.

SBN works the following way : it takes three operands, the first (a) being a pointer, the second (b) being a pointer, and the third (c) being again a pointer. SBN substracts the value pointed by b from the value pointed by a. When the result is non-negative, it will fetch the next instruction, else it will fetch the instruction at c. In c-implementation this gives :

In SIC-ASM :
SBN a,b,c
In c :
*a=*a-*b;
if(a < 0){
  PC=c;
} else {
  PC++;
}

It can be proved that any more useable instruction can be implemented by a sequence of SBNs
For instance, mov A,B could be written as :

SBN A,A,1  //A set to 0
SBN T,T,1  //T set to 0
SBN T,B,1  //T set to -B
SBN A,T,1  //A set to -T which is --B which is B

jmp A could be written as :

SBN 0,1,A  //0-1 < 0 hence will jump to A

Ever heard somebody tell their dog to "sic"/"sick" somebody? Yeah that's not what this is about.

"sic" is frequently seen in brackets (both round or square) as an editorial reference to a semantic or lexical mistake. It's more likely seen in academic literature, but can be seen in daily publications. While the term is Latin, it means "that's how it appears in the original." If a newspaper was quoting another publication and wanted to avoid being blamed for the typo, they would throw in a bracketed sic next to the typo.

President Barack Obama looks to a little boy sticking out his tong (sic) as he holds him during a visit members (sic) of the military and their families during Christmas dinner at Anderson Hall on Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, Hawaii Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010. The first family is in Hawaii for the holidays. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Sic is the Latin word for “thus,” or “such.”

When John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln and jumped from the balcony to the stage of Ford’s Theatre, he is said to have shouted “Sic semper tyrannis!” He meant “that’s what tyrants get;” literally, “Thus always to tyrants.” (Daily Writing)

The use of (sic) is not typically taught in the American secondary school system. In fact, the first time I even understood why there was a "sic" in an editorial piece I was reading was in fact just before posting this. Two years into a television reporting career. Not one time was this referenced in any of my media or journalism classes at Weber State University, and it astonishes me.

"I don't believe for a minute that the vast majority of Americans are prepared to accept defeat, to retreat in the face of terror, to turn over Iran (sic) or Afghanistan to the likes of Osama bin Laden." -Dick Cheney.

The blatant error here is that Cheney inappropriately replaced Iraq by Iran. And, for obvious reasons, something as small as Q vs. N confusion could have devestating(sic) repurcussions(sic). The (sic) indication therefore seeks to inform the readers that not only has the error has been committed, but that it is a known error. (Arrogant Blog)

The above blockquote is from a blog, but I've ironically added two of my own (sic)s next to his misspellings.

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User comments:
(r) wertperch says re sic: Have found the same thing - underused by too many people.Is a useful concept,this!
(r) raincomplex says re sic: nice writeup. also that blog quote is hilarious.
(r) rp says re sic: i've never seen quotes surrounding sic, only brackets and possibly an exclamation point
(r) mcd says re sic: "seeks to inform the readers that not only has the error has been committed" You might need another ironic sic in there, as the error here looks to come from the blog-author. Nice informative writeup. In my youth I always thought it was an acronym for, "Spelling In Context".

Sic (?), a.

Such.

[Scot.]

 

© Webster 1913.

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Sic (?), adv. [L.]

Thus.

This word is sometimes inserted in a quotation [sic], to call attention to the fact that some remarkable or inaccurate expression, misspelling, or the like, is literally reproduced.

 

© Webster 1913.