Grammar 101: What Does [Sic] Mean?
June 11th, 2009 by Michael Kwan![What does [sic] mean?](http://btr.michaelkwan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/sic.jpg "What does [sic] mean?")
It’s debatable how much weight you should be placing on “sic,” but you should at least know what it means. It is a Latin word that roughly translates to “in such a manner” or “as such.” That’s not really how we use it today, however.
Instead, you’ll find that when writers are quoting the work or words of other people, they’ll insert [sic] to indicate that the quote has been reproduced verbatim. Typically, the quote will contain an incorrect or strange spelling of some kind and the writer wants to preserve that without it appearing to be a typo on their part.
If you were to pronounce “sic” in Latin, it would sound closer to the English word “seek.” These days, we tend to anglacize the term to sound closer to the English word “sick.”
In terms of usage, [sic] is generally used to preserve an incorrect spelling, but it can also be used to preserve an inaccuracy in a quote as well. Here are a couple of examples from President George W. Bush:
“We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation [sic] that suffers from incredible disease.”
“I hear there’s rumors on the Internets [sic] that we’re going to have a draft.”
As you may be able to tell from these so-called Bushisms, the use of [sic] is oftentimes meant to be humorous or even scathing in nature. It can be meant to poke fun at the person being quoted, but it may also be used in legal documents where accuracy is a must.
Do you have a suggestion for a future edition of Grammar 101? Let me know through the comment form below.
Filed under Freelance Writing.
Great article. I have a suggestion. Tell me if you’ve done this already, but “The Difference Between Then and Than”. I’m tired of people using “then” to compare two things. It’s THAN! Than! More THAN! Sorry, I just get a little heated about these things.
Funny. I always thought it was an acronym that meant “Spelling Intentionally Correct,” meaning, it’s the exact spelling used by the person quoted — as you explained in your article, Michael.
I used to think that too (until I looked it up).
It’s interesting that someone would want to use [sic] because they wanted to show that they didn’t make a spelling error, but were quoting verbatim. I would think that most people with common sense would understand that the quote is a quote and the spelling is from the author of the quote, not the writer of the article.
Of course when did common sense matter anymore.
Now that we know the meaning of [sic] and when to use, my question is where to place it approriately?
Should the placement be within the quote itself, right after the inaccuracy (as shown in your examples)?
Or should it be placed after the quoted sentence or phrase finishes?
It’s always placed immediately after the inaccuracy within the quote itself.
Interesting. I was unaware of this until now. Thank you for this post. Some emails and webpages out there, if copied as examples, would be riddled with [sic][sic][sic][sic]!
That’s just sick!