Sic

For other uses, see SIC.

Sic is a Latin word meaning "thus" or "so". In writing, it is italicized and placed within square brackets — [sic] — to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, or other preceding quoted material is a reproduction of the quoted original and is not a transcription error.

This may be used either to show that an uncommon or archaic usage is reported faithfully (for instance, quoting the U.S. Constitution, "The House of Representatives shall chuse [sic] their Speaker...") or to highlight an error, often for the purpose of ridicule or irony (for instance, "Dan Quayle famously changed a student's spelling to 'potatoe' [sic]"), or otherwise, to quote accurately whilst maintaining the reputation of the person or organisation quoting its source.

In folk etymology, "sic" is sometimes thought to be an abbreviation of "spelling is correct", "same in copy", "spelled incorrectly", "spelling incompetent" or "said in context", to cite but a few erroneous backronyms.

Sic

See also