Skip to main content
Thumbnail for The dictionary of lost words

The dictionary of lost words

Williams, Pip, 1969-2022
Books, Manuscripts
In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme's place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word 'bondmaid' flutter to the floor unclaimed. 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. She begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.
Main title:
Author:
Imprint:
London : Vintage, 2022.
Collation:
422 pages : maps (black and white) ; 20 cm
Notes:
Originally published: Australia: Affirm Press, 2020.
ISBN:
9781529113228 (pbk. :)
Language:
English
BRN:
1186869
View my active saved list
0 items in my active saved list