English edit

Etymology edit

Blend of parent +‎ Sherlock.

Noun edit

parentlock (uncountable)

  1. (Sherlock fandom slang) A subgenre of Sherlock fan fiction in which Sherlock and John raise a child or children together.
    • 2016, Alyxis Smith, “Fan Fiction as an Argument: Arguing for Johnlock through the Roles of Women and Explicit Sex Scenes in Sherlock Fan Fiction”, in Lynnette Porter, editor, Who Is Sherlock?: Essays on Identity in Modern Holmes Adaptations, page 164:
      Especially because of Season Three's depiction of heavily pregnant Mary in "His Last Vow," fans who ship Johnlock are more likely to consider the inclusion of a Watson baby within the parentlock narrative of Sherlock and John.
    • 2017, Judith May Fathallah, Fanfiction and the Author: How Fanfic Changes Popular Cultural Texts[1], page 65:
      The relevant tags here were very similar to LJ, if phrased slightly differently: e.g., parentlock (portmanteau of parent + Sherlock), military John, genderswap, mpreg.
    • 2018, Jennifer Wojton, Lynnette Porter, Sherlock and Digital Fandom: The Meeting of Creativity, Community and Advocacy, page 41:
      All of these AU parentlock stories or series become "alternate" because of a change in the Sherlock-John relationship and the inclusion of a child who becomes theirs.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:parentlock.

Hypernyms edit