Daily Ancestor[sic]
Sic, often in brackets as [sic], is Latin for thus and means the odd spelling or error is copied exactly as in the original.
Sic is a Latin word meaning thus or so. A transcriber puts [sic] after a word to show that a misspelling, wrong date or strange wording is really in the original and was not a copying mistake.
In abstracts of wills and deeds, [sic] is a signal to look at the original image yourself. A misspelled surname marked [sic] may be the clue that links two branches of a family.
As seen in a recordPublished abstract of an 1790s will
to my dafter [sic] Mary
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "[sic]." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/sic. Last checked 2026-10-01.