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And who says that Sherlock Holmes was not real????
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who says that Sherlock Holmes was not real????
I'd always suspected Holmes was a fictional creation of Doctor Watson's.
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In the words of a long since gone US radio personality whose name I can't recall:
"Now we're gettin' nowhere!"
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I have a challenge for you guys. Figure out origin, etymology of "Sherlock".
How many names can you think of that end in "lock"? Havelock is a family name, perhaps with origin in
Danish prince so named, no clue as to meaning.
Then there is the "man from Porlock" who allegedly made Coleridge forget ending to Kubla Kahn.
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sheesh, you need to be a Sherlock to figure this one out! what I've got so far: from: http://www.behindthename.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?terms=sherlockSHERLOCK m English Possibly derived from a Middle English nickname meaning "shear lock", referring to people with closely cut hair. that doesn't really mean a whole lot as it relates to Conan Doyle, but Holmes isn't much better. something to do with an adaptation of the word "Ulmes", where they made a type of fabric, which did, at least, seem a bit tweedy. but that's a long stretch... even the OED didn't offer any background...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Conan Doyle being what he was, I just thought it possible that for a character so important
as Sherlock Holmes, he might have wrapped a tantalizing riddle in it. Fun to speculate, anyway.
I just remembered there was a famous surgeon, Dr. Alfred Blalock. Still no clue as to what
"lock" stands for.
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you're probably right about the hidden meaning...
I always thought that "lock" was probably from "lac" or lake, but this whole hair thing has me wondering about a name with lock in it would be describing the person's hair, which would have been descriptive...
back to the OED to look up "sher" or "sherl"...
formerly known as etaoin...
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well, I don't know. the OED has four pages on "lock"...whew. as far as sherl is concerned(there's nothing for "sher"), it is an obsolete usage for "schorl", which is a type of volcanic rock, known in other forms as, "tourmaline". it is black, so maybe Sherlock is just "black hair". seems a bit weak, though...
formerly known as etaoin...
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There are many sites about Sherlock Holmes, the Baker Street Irregulars, etc. I found one
"Sherlock Holmes 101" a chat room for enthusiasts, but got "Not Found". I'm having trouble
with my vision, and my glasses are hurting my nose because my skin is so thin and fragile.
Gotta chcken out for a bit.
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wwh:
Mr. Mavlock, Mr. Mavelock, Miss Goldilocks, Mr. Padlock, and Mr. Rapeofthelock
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I always thought that "lock" was probably from "lac" or lakeI think you're right, eta - there's James Love lock (who proposed the Gaia theory: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/philosophy/mave/guide/gaiath~1.htm) and Lady Love lace (Babbage's famous friend: http://www.scottlan.edu/lriddle/women/love.htm) for instance. Not that those two prove anything. I hear Sherlock and tend to think "flintlock", "forelock" and "Shylock". The "lock" bit implies security and efficient mechanisms, doesn't it? Especially if it's a sher thing. 
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I always liked Sherlock Holmes. I think I read somewhere that Doyle based the character on a doctor he once knew.
Doyle was a brilliant writer and Holmes one of the all-time great characters of fiction, but Doyle was a far better writer than he was a logician. Most commonly, the evidence in the stories is alluded to and not stated. And a lot of the "evidence" that is stated is nonsense.
Still, he's one of my favorite characters - particularly case 16 of the first book, The Case of the Greek Interpreter, in which we meet Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's smarter older brother.
I've made a point of reading many of the shorts, as well as the novella The Hound of the Baskervilles to my kids. They loved the stories, but hated the end of the first book where Sherlock gets killed.
I wonder where a name like Mycroft comes from.
k
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Thanks for your reply. I think that Sherlock Holmes was real in the sense that Santa Claus was real in "The Miracle on 34th Street."
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we meet Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's smarter older brother
Ah yes, I'd forgotten that, FF! It's a brilliant touch, and quite unexpected. You're waiting for Mycroft to slip up, thus proving Sherlock the real star of the show, but it does not happen.
It's another example of how Conan Doyle gives Sherlock just enough human foibles and frailties to make him engaging and likeable.
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