Dawn Reader

Dawn Reader
from Open Door Coffee Co.; Hudson, OH; Oct. 26, 2016

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Once again, I don't know ...

A bit of a back story ...

When I first began my "scholarly" studies and was learning how to employ the word sic in scholarly writing (meaning thus--the term you use when you're quoting something that's got an error in it--say, you were quoting this from a Shakespeare play recently published: To be or not to been [sic] ....), I remember being somewhat amused by two homophones: sick and, well, sic--the term you bark at a dog to tell him/her to go after something--as in Sic 'em, Sooner! (Sooner was my boyhood dog.)

Okay, so last night, in bed, streaming Line of Duty, Joyce suddenly asked me where that term came from.

I had no freaking clue.

This morning, checking dictionaries, I do!

Merriam-Webster traces it back to 1845 and says it is a version of seek. Sounds reasonable. Let's see what the OED says ,..

[PAUSE WHILE I CHECK THE OED ...]

The dictionary lists it not by sic but by sick (but does list sic as an alternate spelling). It also traces it to 1845, to a novel by J. J. Hooper, Some Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs. Here's the quotation: "Sick him Pomp,..sick, sick, si-c-k him Bull.)

I just took a look on ABE ... the book is pretty rare, with prices ranging up to $275. But you can get a paperback, too,  And it's available in various formats via Amazon, too.


I think I'm going to order and read one ...

Oh, and I should confess: Sooner never once in his life obeyed my command to sic. Maybe I should have said sick, Sooner being a literal thinker and all.


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