What does [sic] mean?

[shortstop]

I dont remember using or even seeing - [sic] - used much, now it seems to be all over the place. Could someone please explain exactly what it means and in what context you would use it.

[shortstop]

That seems to explain roughly what I thought. I can't, however, work it out when used in the following extract from a news report on the BBC web site.

Hussain pleaded with the prime minister to raise his case "most emphatically" with the Pakistani leader and press for his release.

"I hope President Musharraf [sic] will be obliged to do this and set me free," he wrote

[shortstop]

Yeah....i agree.

The only trouble is President Musharraf is the CORRECT spelling of the Pakaistani leader so I guess the writer has spelt the name correctly by mistake.....if you get my drift.

Thanks for that, I'm not going completely mad.

[Clanad]

Our inestimable Quizmonster has this deffinitive answer:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases_and_Say ings/Question300412.html