Dictionary

Fawnlock en · NOUN

Etymology

Blend of fawn + Sherlock.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:Sherlock fandom slang, uncountable) A subgenre of Sherlock fan fiction and fanart portraying Sherlock Holmes as an anthropomorphic deer-like creature.
   • One of my oldest informants, adagio, confirms this in an e-mail interview and admits to sometimes feeling as if fandom is deviating too far from the story told on the show: "I don‘t really see the point when the names is all that‘s left. I don‘t get things like fawnlock or tunalock at all, but I guess it‘s amusing. … Sometimes I think the internet has made it too easy to publish stories." 2015, "adagio", quoted in Kee Lundqvist, "Stories of Significance: The Process and Practices of Sense-Making in the Sherlock Fan Community", thesis submitted to Uppsala University, page 76
   • Sometimes the thematically focused groups are a clear subset of shippers, such as teenlock, femlock, vamplock, or fawnlock (respectively describing John Watson/Sherlock Holmes as teens, women, vampires, or young deer). 2017, Kristina Busse, Framing Fan Fiction: Literary and Social Practices in Fan Fiction Communities, page 112:
   • Certainly it would be hard to guess why individuals dressed as humanoid woodland animals would be at a Holmes convention if you weren’t familiar with Fawnlock stories and art, in an Alternate Universe where Sherlock is a deer-like creature with antlers and fur. 2014, Lynne Stephens, "The Game Is Never Over: A 221B Con Review", Canadian Holmes: The Journal of the Bootmakers of Toronto, Volume 36, Number 4, Summer 2014, page 4

Forms