English
Sherlock
Sherlock may come from Old English scir-locc ‘bright-lock’.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150scir-locc‘bright-lock’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1908Sherlock
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150scir-locc‘bright-lock’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1908Sherlock
Earliest quotation: 1908, The Blue and Gold: “That afternoon when the boys were in the field…”
The story
One of a group of surnames originally denoting hair colour, parallel to Blacklock, Harlock (Old English har (‘grey’)), Silverlock. In the sense of “a detective”, from Sherlock Holmes. In the computing verb sense, refers to the software Sherlock, which in 2002 came to replicate some of the features of an earlier complementary program called Watson.
Every English word from Old English scir-locc
Today it means
name An English surname transferred from the nickname.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old English scir-locc / Sherlock