sic

Formssics, siccing, sicced

1. 1
   error in originaladverb

   Placed after quoted words to show they are copied exactly from the source, usually to flag an error or odd wording, sometimes to mock a claim.

   The transcript preserved the witness's 'I seen [sic] him run' exactly as spoken.

   Quoting the old letter, she left 'untill [sic]' uncorrected to stay faithful to it.

   UsageUsually in square brackets, [sic], placed right after the copied error.

   Note

   A Latin word doing an editor's job: sīc means "thus, so." It shares its spelling with the dog-setting verb, but the two are unrelated, since that one is a variant of seek. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Editorial sic comes from Latin sīc, meaning 'thus, so'. en.wikipedia.org
   • The identically spelled dog-setting verb has a separate etymology as a variant of seek. en.wiktionary.org
2. 2
   set dogs onverbtransitive

   To urge a dog, or send a person or thing, to attack or go after someone or something; also, of a dog, to attack or chase.

   She sicced both German shepherds on the prowler lurking in the backyard.

   Ranchers sic their dogs on coyotes that threaten the herd.

   UsagePattern: sic a dog on someone. Forms: sicced, siccing.

   Similarset, unleash

   Note

   Behind this verb is seek, respelled. The attacker need not be an animal. Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown (1992) has phone phreaks siccing computer modems on 911 systems, and Brian Merchant, in a Harper's Magazine article, writes of a scheme to sic contract killers on an innocent woman. Anything sent against someone at another's bidding can fill the slot. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • The attack verb sic is a variant of seek. en.wiktionary.org
   • Bruce Sterling wrote The Hacker Crackdown, first published in 1992. en.wikipedia.org
   • The Hacker Crackdown describes phreaks siccing computer modems on 911 systems. dev.gutenberg.org
   • Brian Merchant's Harper's Magazine article describes a scheme to sic contract killers on an innocent woman. en.wiktionary.org
3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To insert a bracketed [sic] following a quoted error, flagging that the mistake belongs to the original source.

   Editors sic the spelling errors so readers know the author wrote them that way.

   He sicced every grammatical slip in the transcribed interview.

   Similarflag, mark

   Note

   The bracket turned into a verb: to sic an error is to flag it in print. Its -ing and past forms double the c (siccing, sicced), exactly like those of the dog-setting verb. E. Belfort Bax, writing in Commonweal in 1887, already pictures a reviewer who sics "or otherwise castigates." Siccing a quoted writer can read as a reproach as much as a correction. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The editorial marker sic became a verb meaning to mark quoted material with sic. en.wiktionary.org
   • Both the editorial verb and the dog-setting verb have the forms siccing and sicced. en.wiktionary.org
   • E. Belfort Bax's article appeared in Commonweal in 1887. marxists.org
   • Bax describes a reviewer who sics things or otherwise castigates them, using the quoted wording. marxists.org
4. 4
   nouncountable

   A marker placed in square brackets within quoted text to show that a mistake or oddity was reproduced exactly as it stood in the original.

   The editor inserted a sic after the senator's misspelling of Tennessee so readers wouldn't blame the paper.

   By the third paragraph, the quoted manifesto was littered with sics.

   Note

   The noun turns the marker into something you can count: writers put, add or insert a sic, and a sloppy quotation can collect several sics. Its partner is the verb for adding one, so an editor can also sic a passage, spelled sicced and siccing with a doubled c. Used once, a sic is plain fidelity; scattered after every clumsy phrase, as in a harsh review, it turns into criticism.

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