[sic] [sic]

NO DOUBT YOU RECOGNIZE THE BRACKETED “[sic],” the citer stressing that the word, even though exactly as cited, is incorrect: “My county [sic], ’tis of thee.”

It’s a good way for one to cover one’s own… er… research. 

An interesting example is contained in the “Letters” column of the London Review of Books, 6 June 2024. I love LRB’s erudite presentations and the oft manner in which they encourage further reading. 

Indeed, the word “manner” is also at the heart of this tidbit gleaned from the following letter submitted by Benjamin Letzler, Mödling, Austria.

A Correction of a Correction: Mr. Letzler writes, “Laleh Khalil quotes Paul Fussell: ‘Sail is still far superior to power, partly because you can’t do it simply by turning an ignition key and steering—you have to be sort of to the manner [sic] born’ (LRB, 9 May). The sic is wrong, Fussell falsely accused. ‘To the manner born’ is from Hamlet: ‘though I am native here/And to the manner born, it is a custom/ More honoured in the breach than the observance.’ The eggcorn ‘to the manor born’ is, although sometimes seen, less correct except when referring to the title of a late 1970s BBC sitcom.” 

This double-[sic] is fun because it encourages added reading on several counts: refreshing my knowledge about etymology of [sic], seeing whether Rowse’s Annotated Shakespeare has anything to add about the Hamlet passage, recalling a favorite quote from Paul Fussell—and what’s an “eggcorn” anyway?

Etymology. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary says, “Sic, adv. [Latin sic so thus.] A parenthetical insertion in printing quotations or reported utterances to call attention to something anomalous or erroneous in the original, or to guard against the supposition of misquotation.” 

The O.E.D.’s references are relatively recent, both dating from the late 1880s. No mention is made of my “[sic][sic]” double play.

Hamlet Carping About Uncle Claudius. Early on in Hamlet (by far the wordiest of Shakespeare’s plays), Act I Scene 4, Hamlet and his pal Horatio are discussing his Uncle Claudius’s carousing.

Hamlet says, “But to my mind, though I am native here/ And to the manner born, it is a custom/ More honour’d in the breach than the observance.” 

Even though a local guy, Hamlet doesn’t think much of Uncle Claudius marrying his mom after poisoning his dad. There are standards, after all, even for royal Danes. 

Some say changing Shakespeare’s “manner” to “manor” is a good pun on noble origins. I say who are they to screw around with Shakespeare’s word choice (if not, by the way, his spelling).

What’s an “Eggcorn”? Wikipedia says, “An eggcorn is the alteration of a phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements, creating a new phrase having a different meaning from the original but which still makes sense and is plausible when used in the same context.” For example, “manner” and “manor.”

Wikipedia suggests “eggcorn” is itself an eggcorn derived from “acorn.” Another eggcorn I enjoy is “baited breath” when what’s intended is “bated breath.” Also “scandally clad” for “scantily clad.”

Think of eggcorns as high-powered mondegreens. See “Auditory Faux Pas” for the latter, which need not make sense within the same context. Or, for that matter, make any sense at all. For example, “the girl with colitis goes by” when the Beatles actually sing “the girl with kaleidoscope eyes.”

Paul Fussell. Last, the LRB exchange brings to mind one of my favorite historians, author Paul Fussell. Wikipedia calls him “An American cultural and literary historian, author, and university professor.”

Fussell’s books include Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, 1983; BAD—Or, the Dumbing of America, 1991; and Doing Battle—The Making of a Skeptic, 1996.  I forget which of his 24 works has the Fussell quote I recall: He relates what he calls the best joke to come out of Prohibition: A fellow wary of a recent bootleg purchase sends an unlabeled sample to a chemist for analysis. The response reads, “Sir. Your horse has diabetes.”

ds  

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024