ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON

Elementary my dear Watson is popularly recognized as a pet phrase frequently used by famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, while explaining his deductions to his close friend and assistant, Dr. Watson.

Incidentally, Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes never actually used the phrase in any of his books. It only appeared in later films and seems to have caught on due to the character’s immense mass appeal.

The canonical Holmes did use the word “elementary” when speaking with Watson. For example, Conan Doyle’s 1893 story The Adventure of the Crooked Man published in The Strand Magazine contained a scene in which Holmes carefully examined Watson’s appearance and concluded that he had recently been busy with several visits to medical patients. Holmes explained his reasoning to Watson. As the doctor seemped most impressed, Holmes exclaimed ‘Elementary!’ Holmes also uses“elementary” in The Crooked Man, and “It was very superficial, my dear Watson, I assure you” in The Cardboard Box. He also says “Exactly, my dear Watson, in three different stories.

The phrase in some form or other had been in use since 1893, alluding to Holmes’ idisyncratic way of addressing his dear accomplice. The exact phrase was was first used by P. G. Wodehouse, in Psmith Journalist, 1915

In contemporary usage, the phrase seems to denote that while a formulation or a deduction might seem very complex at the outset, it is actually quite simple. People sometimes use this expression humorously to say how easy it is to solve something.