Watsonian
adj, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Resembling or characteristic of the character Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories.
- 2 From an in-universe perspective; of or relating to an explanation within the text; internal to the narrative. slang
"I would accept that many of them behave like humans born on earth would, but that must be an artefact of poor translation or our poor understanding of their motives and objectives [Watsonian] or lack of vision on the writers part [Doylist - to borrow some terms from the Bujold mailing list - think 'as written by' Dr Watson or by Arthur Conan Doyle]."
Example
More examples"I would accept that many of them behave like humans born on earth would, but that must be an artefact of poor translation or our poor understanding of their motives and objectives [Watsonian] or lack of vision on the writers part [Doylist - to borrow some terms from the Bujold mailing list - think 'as written by' Dr Watson or by Arthur Conan Doyle]."
Etymology
From Watson + -ian. "In-universe" sense formed in reference to Dr. John Watson, the fictional author within the text of the Sherlock Holmes stories, in contrast to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the real author of the stories. Started in Sherlock Holmes fandom before spreading to other fandoms. Possibly originating in the "Baker Street Irregulars" fan club and entering the science fiction fandom usage (fanspeak) via the Lois McMaster Bujold mailing list.
Related phrases
More for "watsonian"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.