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Etymology and origin of the English word sic

Pronunciation

sic1 to set a dog on

Confidence
Established
First attested
1845 J. J. Hooper, Some Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs

Etymology

The verb meaning to set a dog on is a dialectal variant of seek,[2][3][4][5][6] first recorded in American English, as “sick” in 1845 and with the spelling “sic” from 1890.[6] Merriam-Webster calls it an alteration of the same verb.[7] The older verb is Middle English sēchen, from Old English sēcan.[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a dog, to set upon or attack an animal, chiefly as a command: 1845, in J. J. Hooper's Some Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs,[2] where the sense "to urge a dog to attack" is also found.[2] Merriam-Webster also dates its first use to 1845.[7]

Semantic evolution

Because it was a command used to urge a dog to attack a person or an animal, the verb came to mean "to cause to pursue".[4] With on or at it was used from the start for setting a dog or another animal on someone, and for inciting a person to attack another.[2][3] From 1914, in Ring Lardner, it was used figuratively of setting a person to work on something, or to follow or pursue someone.[2][3] Both spellings, sic and sick, are still in use, with the past forms sicced or sicked.[7][3]

Timeline

  • 1845 – as sick, of a dog, to attack; to set a dog on someone.[2][6][7]
  • 1890 – the spelling sic is first recorded, in American English.[6]
  • 1914 – figurative, to set a person on a task or on someone's track.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of a dog, to attack or chase; usually as a command to a dog: sic 'em![7][2][3]
  2. To urge a dog or a person to attack someone, usually with on: The farmer threatened to sic his dogs on the trespassers.[7][2][3]
  3. To set a person to deal with, follow or pursue someone: The company sicced its lawyers on the blogger.[2][3][7]

sic2 thus, so written

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1859
Borrowed from
Latin sic
Ultimate origin
Latin sīc
Etymology tree of sic2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin si
Latin sic
Aromanian shi
French si
Italian sì
English sic
From the same root · sic2
Italian quasi ← si
Latin quasi ← si
Latin siquidem ← si
Latin sive ← si
Latin sicine ← sic
Latin sicut ← sic
French sinon ← si
Italian sissignore ← sì

Etymology

The adverb used in quotations is borrowed from Latin sīc (“so, thus”).[2][3][8][7][9] Barnhart thinks its use in English may have been influenced by the same use in French, recorded in 1872.[6][4] Klein explains the Latin word as a contraction of an older sīce, from sī (“if”), originally meaning "so", and the emphatic particle -ce.[10] It is thus related to that conjunction,[7][6][4] to Old English swā and English so,[7][5] and Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *so- (“this, that”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Inserted in a quotation to point out that an odd or wrong form is reproduced exactly as in the original: Merriam-Webster dates its first use to about 1859,[7] and the OED's first quotation is from the preface to Henry Sweet's Second Anglo-Saxon Reader (1887).[2][6]

Semantic evolution

According to Etymonline the word was in regular use in English publications by 1876.[4] From 1889 it was also used as a verb, to mark a quoted word with a sic,[2] and in the 20th century as a noun, an instance of such marking.[3] The phrase sic passim, "so throughout", is used in books to show that a word or spelling appears in the same form all through the text.[11][12] Fowler, quoted by Etymonline, held that it should be used only where a reader would naturally doubt the quotation, and complained that reviewers and controversialists used it as "a neat & compendious form of sneer".[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1859 – first known use, according to Merriam-Webster.[7]
  • 1872 – the same use is recorded in French.[6][4]
  • 1876 – in regular use in English publications.[4]
  • 1887 – first OED quotation, in Henry Sweet's Second Anglo-Saxon Reader.[2][6]
  • 1889 – verb, to mark with sic.[2]
  • mid 20th century – noun, an instance of using sic.[3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Thus; so written: put in brackets after a quoted word or passage to show that it is copied exactly, although it looks wrong or odd: The notice read “Strickly (sic) no parking.”[11][7][3][2]
  2. sic passim: so throughout; used to show that a word or spelling occurs in the same form all through a text.[11][12]

Noun

  1. An instance of using sic in a quotation.[3]

Verb

  1. To mark a quoted word or passage with sic.[2]
  • sic passim
  • sic transit gloria mundi
  • sic semper tyrannis
  • seek
  • so
  • such

Usage notes

In Scots and northern English, sic is also a reduced form of such, recorded since the 15th century.[2][3][12] In the dialects of Scotland, northern England and Hampshire, sic or sic-sic was a call to pigs to come to the trough.[13]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Sic.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/sic. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

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