The Dictionary of Lost Words

Paperback, 432 pages

English language

Published Jan. 19, 2022

ISBN:: 978-1-925972-59-7

(10 reviews)

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realises that some …

In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.

1 edition

KathyReid reviewed The Dictionary of Lost Words

Review of 'The Dictionary of Lost Words' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

As a work of historical fiction, [b:The Dictionary of Lost Words|49354511|The Dictionary of Lost Words|Pip Williams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1576570225l/49354511.SY75.jpg|74793187] provides a gentle introduction to socio-linguistics - that is, why do some words mean different things when said by different people in different contexts?

The historical setting of turn-of-the-century England provides a fertile landscape for exploring not only how social class is marked by dialect and by accent, but how language also serves to construct social divides by reinforcing assumptions, taboos and things "that should not be named". At the same time, I was struck by how the absence of language breeds ignorance; you cannot express a sentiment, a desire, an anger, if you do not possess the words that accurately capture its tenor, its flavour, its characteristics, its nuance. A world of fewer words is the poorer because we cannot capture its complexity and are forced instead to describe it in broad, generalising strokes.

While primarily concerned with how language intersects gender and class, the development of the character of Esme also serves to show how languages stratifies people across life stages - the child, the adolescent, the mother, the widow, the maiden aunt - and how words take on new meaning as their context of use shifts.

I desperately wanted Esme, as a character, to recognise the power of the words that was gifted by the characters she interacted with - not just to scribe them or to record their definition verbatim, but somehow weaponise them, use them as bullets in the world war and in the war of equality in which she was embroiled. Giving womens' words ink, and solidifying them in print may have taken them from the mouths of speakers on the street, but this act did nothing to erode the inequality which bore them, or to upend the indignities of the people who spoke them.

Joel A reviewed The Dictionary of Lost Words

A nice meditation on words and their meaning and ownership

4 stars

A look at the women behind (literally, last in line) the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the various ways their words and lives are ignored.

Avarla reviewed The Dictionary of Lost Words

Review of 'The Dictionary of Lost Words' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

DNF, it had to go back to the library. Might try again.

The Shattered Moon reviewed The Dictionary of Lost Words

Review of 'The Dictionary of Lost Words' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Just finished reading (well, listening to) this and I've been blown away. It highlights how much of the original Oxford dictionary was shaped by a white, male, and middle- to upper-class perspective. But it does it without battering you with polemic, instead drawing out the themes through the engaging and highly believable story of one young woman (a girl at the start).
I see one commentator on this site is complaining that their reading has been 'ruined' by the (few and deftly-placed) occurrences of 'obscene' words. As a way to demonstrate that you've completely missed the point of the whole book, that's hard to beat.
100% recommended.

ManyRoads reviewed The Dictionary of Lost Words

Review of 'The Dictionary of Lost Words' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is a magnificent tale. It is a story of love, heart ache, belonging, hope, and longing. The novel is well written, peopled by fully formed characters. It may even move those who have hardened their hearts to caring...