What does "sic" actually stand for?

What an excellent question! The following is a response to my good friend Sarah's question regarding the definition of "sic".

When I started my MA programme and found myself striving to comprehend academic articles, I noticed from time to time that silly little word - sic -, most often seen in square brackets, like this: [sic].

Of latinate source, "sic" means "therefore". It serves to indicate that some type of semantic or lexical mistake has occurred. Merriam-Webster says this:

Latin, so, thus -- more at SO: intentionally so written -- used after a printed word or passage to indicate that it is intended exactly as printed or to indicate that it exactly reproduces an original ' said he seed [sic] it all '.

Dictionary.com provides the following:

Thus; so. Used to indicate that a quoted passage, especially one containing an error or unconventional spelling, has been retained in its original form or written intentionally.

Looking back at my previous post, let's contextualize the use of [sic] in Dick Cheney's utterance:

"I don't believe for a minute that the vast majority of Americans are prepared to accept defeat, to retreat in the face of terror, to turn over Iran [sic] or Afghanistan to the likes of Osama bin Laden."

The blatant error here is that Cheney inappropriately replaced Iraq by Iran. And, for obvious reasons, something as small as Q vs. N confusion could have devestating repurcussions. The [sic] indication therefore seeks to inform the readers that not only has the error has been committed, but that it is a known error.

A quick search on CBC's website generated a number of online articles containing the [sic] mention. Though it appears that CBC's writing standards suggestions (sic) over [sic]. For example:

They used a black felt pen to scrawl "Unhonest (sic)," "Liers (sic)" and "I am the devil" on the window in front of promotional material for the Liberal Party of Canada and pictures of Murray and Paul Martin.

This example illustrates how CBC maintains the integretity of its news source without overcorrecting. Obviously, what one intended to graffiti was "Dishonest" and "Liars", respectively. Flagging the orthographically challenged artists' graffiti with (sic) reminds the readers that what was reported is authentic, or 'as is' if you prefer.

Back to the academic articles. I most often see [sic] in transcriptions or in articles providing examples of pre-modern-orthographic-norm English. Let's say a definition from 17th century dictionary where the orthographic standards then depart in some cases from present spelling conventions (ie. writing goode instead of good.