What does [sic] mean?

Everything on ARN&R says [sic], in particular, all of the merchandise in the store. What does it mean?

It's latin, meaning "thus". It's often used to denote that errors in spelling or word use are intentional -- especially when quoting something.

--Madison

For example, when interviewed on the Discovery Channel, Paul Ruben says, "Top Thrill Dragster is gooder than gravy!" Now say that Cedar Point wants to use that chunk of praise on their web site. When reproducing the quote, they would display it as "Top Thrill Dragster is gooder [sic] than gravy!" to indicate the error was there originally.

http://pouringfooters.blogspot.com

It's also what you get when you eat bean burritos at 3 a.m.

[url="http://www.livejournal.com/users/denl42"]My blog[/url] You said, "I'm gonna run you down." I heard, "I'm an orangutan."

Den that is just [sic]! But have to agree. As to the "real" meaning...now I know. Doh! So one could say [sic] stands for spelling intentionally crappy. *** Edited 11/26/2003 6:49:40 PM UTC by beast7369***

I always thought of it as "spelling in context" which, really, doesn't make *too* much sense, but works.

--Madison

Sounds good to me, Maddie, but then again, you are Nasai approved. ;)

The Flying Turns makes all the right people wet - Gonch

Are you sure, Maddie? I mean, we've established the actual meaning, but I could have sworn it was a latin acronym, that there was a three word phrase where the letters began with s-i-c, and that it later became used as its own word dentoing the error was in the original text. Latin class was a *long* time ago though, and I very well *could* be mistaken, or even confusing the "sic" with some other word or phrase of Latin origin...

bill, took Latin in ancient *roam*...;)

I thought it means "Spelled InCorrectly." But I guess the Latin "thus" would make more sense.

Main Entry: sic
Pronunciation: 'sik, 'sEk
Function: adverb
Etymology: Latin, so, thus -- more at SO
Date: circa 1859
1. intentionally so written -- used after a printed word or passage to indicate that it is intended exactly as printed or to indicate that it exactly reproduces an original.
2. see Gator.

Wow, you learn something new everyday. My simple self always assumed [sic] was put there as if the author hiccuped, like one would if he were drunk. Guess I should have opted for Latin in high school instead of German, which I took with all us beer drinkers ;-)

What did you learn yesterday, Scott? ;)

mOOSH

rollergator said:
I could have sworn it was a latin acronym, that there was a three word phrase where the letters began with s-i-c, and that it later became used as its own word dentoing the error was in the original text.

"Spellingvs invs contextvs"

Which actually reminds me that I still don't know why old carved buildings replace u's with v's.

Hobbes: "What's the point of attaching a number to everything you do?"
Calvin: "If your numbers go up, it means you're having more fun."

ApolloAndy said:
rollergator said:
I could have sworn it was a latin acronym, that there was a three word phrase where the letters began with s-i-c, and that it later became used as its own word dentoing the error was in the original text.
"Spellingvs invs contextvs"
Which actually reminds me that I still don't know why old carved buildings replace u's with v's.

[sic] isn't used exclusively for spelling errors, however, but is also applicable to malapproprisms and grammatical errors.

u's were replaced with v's, according to things I've read, because of u's association with the number 6 and that number's association with Lucifer. Similarly, s' were replaced by f's. There's a long explanation here, but I don't know how respectable that is.

--Madison