Thursday, July 7, 2011

[sic] pedant

I really wish that commenters on blogs would find out what [sic] means.

I'm tired of seeing it used all the time when not quoting someone or something.

sic, usually inside square brackets, means thus; so.

Thus; so. Used to indicate that a quoted passage, especially one containing an error or unconventional spelling, has been retained in its original form or written intentionally.

8 comments:

Minicapt said...

It is especially frustrating when the quote is from, perhaps, a 17th century publication, and the original spelling is the correct version. Judiciously implemented, it is useful and informative, but as generally used today, it betrays the inadequate educational qualifications of 'lick-spittle commentators' and their tendency to imitate the fashions of their betters.

Cheers

kae said...

It seems to be used more and more instead of "so-called", and those two words are overused by people who also don't know what that expression means!

Mick Gold Coast QLD said...

Good.

Now we've dealt with sic, what's our position on fully sic?

Yeah, yeah, I know "Mick! Miiiiick! Get back under the verandah now, git!"

Merilyn said...

It's all right Kae I'll say it for you Mick you boofhead!!!! [lol]

Minicapt said...

#68; and it's spelt "tres sec".

cheers

Merilyn said...

Minicapt, if you want to know where 17 is, he is on Piers Akerman's latest blog on pg 5.

Kaboom said...

[sic] = "thus; so"

Sorry, as a pedant, I beg to differ.

[sic], as everyone knows, means "Look what this ignorant, ill-educated arsehole just wrote - a truly telling indictment of modern education."

Redux of the Dead Language in your example: [sic] = "thus; so" merely reinforces societal stereotypical adumbraton of basically incoherent speech patterns being regarded as "educated" or otherwise beyond the reaches of the common proletariat.

In other words, if I used the terminology of "thus; so" in ordinary conversaton with a member of the lower classes, I would certainly expect to require the benefits of private medical insurance.

Minicapt said...

Kaboom is a pendant, swinging to and fro ...

Cheers