Re^4: The view from Barnes & Noble

All due respect, but I disagree. The word sic is a Latin adverb meaning 'thus, in this manner, in this way'. There is nothing in the word that intrinsically points to language or quotation.

Yes, the most common use of sic in English refers to quoted words. The speaker feels the quotation has some sort of mistake, and the sic says, "The person I'm quoting wrote, spelled or spoke in this way, so blame that person for the mistake(s) in it."

However, it's a perfectly natural extension to use the word in a parallel fashion for a (perceived) non-linguistic faux-pas. To belabor a very, very weak joke, when I used it above, I meant "C, C++, Java, JavaScript - yes, they shelved JavaScript in this way, which I find silly, but take it up with them." I stand by the usage.

I'm beginning to wonder if this is relevant (for all of us): xkcd://386

Comment on Re^4: The view from Barnes & Noble

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Re^5: The view from Barnes & Noble by McDarren (Abbot) on Oct 11, 2008 at 03:04 UTC
I'm beginning to wonder if this is relevant (for all of us): xkcd://386 No, I'm sorry but you're just plain wrong. It's not in the slightest bit relevant. ;)	[reply]
Re^5: The view from Barnes & Noble by Argel (Prior) on Oct 10, 2008 at 23:55 UTC
All due respect, but I disagree. The word sic is a Latin adverb meaning 'thus, in this manner, in this way'. There is nothing in the word that intrinsically points to language or quotation. And when using the Latin word "sic" in English writing it is generally understood to indicate a decision to quote something verbatim in lieu of correcting a percieved mistake. If you want to write messages in Latin then I suppose we should hold you to also writing Perl in Latin as well!! ;-) Elda Taluta; Sarks Sark; Ark Arks	[reply]