Job Discussion Forums

[Stephen Jones]

Strange how you can go for decades without coming across perfectly good English phrases.

To 'sic', or 'sick' is a perfectly good English verb (originally a variant of 'seek')

The Webster entry is

Main Entry: 2sic
Variant(s): also sick /'sik/
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): sicced also sicked /'sikt/; sic�cing also sick�ing
Etymology: alteration of seek
1 : CHASE, ATTACK -- usually used as a command especially to a dog <sic 'em>
2 : to incite or urge to an attack, pursuit, or harassment : SET <sicced their lawyers on me>

I may add that from the thread, now locked which explains why I have to start a new one, it appears that VS had never heard the phrase before either. However a Google search reveals that the phrase "sick the truth" has only been used 146 times (that figure will go up with the posts on the thread here and its use by Van Norden elsewhere) compared to more than half a million uses of 'seek the truth'.

So are 007 and Van Norden using 'sick the truth' when they meant to write 'seek the truth', or are they suggesting we should go after the truth like a dog goes after the postman?

[Van Norden]

My source isn't Websters, nor is it only a few decades old/obsolete. I got it from shadowfax (go through all his old posts and you'll find it.) He used sick ('sikkhe') in the Old Norse sense meaning to 'test' the truth. The philosopher Hegel also used this word in his triad: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. I just assumed 007 was using the Hegel/shadowfax definition.

[dmb]

I remember as a kid I had a big sloppy German shepherd dog. I used to point at my enemy friend for the day and shout "sic'. Actually I was 7/8 years old at the time and had no idea how it was spelled. Anyway it was a disobedient dog, never attacked and would just look at me with big puppy eyes going where's my dinner?

The only time Duke(that was his name) made any action that resembled sicing was to jump out the car window-it was open- in the direction of a bit.ch on heat.... only to be stopped by a number 7 bus. A terrible thing for a kid to see. I still have nightmares

[veiledsentiments]

I googled "sick the truth" and got nothing... all that came up was examples that used "...sick. The truth..." or "...sick; the truth..."

I too have only seen the word 'sic' and have only heard it in reference to dogs.

Are we supposed to be impressed by the usage of obscure, outdated phrases?

VS
(sorry about your dog, dmb...)

[Van Norden]

[007]

[Stephen Jones]

Yep, VS is right. Not one example of 'sick' as a verv, and all the 56 examples of 'sic the truth' are [sic] referring to the previous word.

But it's still in both Webster and the SOED.

Now perhaps 007 and Van Norden can come clear and admit they made a spelling mistake :)

[shadowfax]

I think Mr Van Norden mistakes him (or perhaps I am once again the butt of a vivaceous wit?!) in citing myself as having used sick/sic in that sense. Looking to the OED (complete), I see it is attested from 1845, and thereafter by lesser American authors such as journalists, writers of comic prose, etc. I am surprised the OED, which describes it as dialectal, does not also attribute it to American usage, as the OED does with many entries. I certainly don't remember having used, or even known of it, myself. I do not usually graft my diction from so base a stock!

I was not particularly surprised to see VS join in a potential pile-on (here I use an Americanism) against my selection of words. Pray let me clarify my philosophy: I generally stand up for freedom of choice in diction, so long as the word is in the OED and is modern (and that includes early- modern, i.e., from the 16th century onwards). But I wouldn't object to the odd Chaucerism, either! In short, I prefer to include words from the zenith of English-speaking culture as well as tolerating those that belong more to its nadir (the use of sick in this instance, for example).

The objection to the use of "big words" or obscure words, belongs to the lower forms of second-rate secondary schools rather than emong English teachers.

Who doth raise from tranquil rest the long-dead corse of shadowfax, that sleeps in dreary shade? 'Tis she, 'tis she, that joys in mart, that uncouth veil�d maid.

P.S. Sorry for "emong", I couldn't resist the Spenserism.

[007]

No matter how sick the truth is. Let me buy you a Purple drink and we'll forget all about it.

[Van Norden]

Dear oh dear! Who�d have thought 007�s unique spin on the language would lead to all this frantic googling etc? I apologise for my part in all this, but I assumed we were all on the same page.

Yes Jonesy, I used �sick the truth� in a post, but as an in-joke, based on the locked thread where it first hilariously appeared. I�m not sure if you�re also taking the piss by pressing for this spelling-error admission?

Yes faxman, I confess to fabricating the (very plausible) reference to you. I wondered if you were still out there, lurking in the shadows.

I also made up the Hegel reference but it would seem that, according to the OED, I was on to something:

[007]