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A review by taylor_broek
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
3.0
I loved reading about this history of the dictionary. How often do you look up a word on your phone for the dictionary definition… now how often do you think about who decided that was the definition & how! To add another layer; did you ever wonder when looking at a gendered or derogatory term how much bias went into the definition. If more women were allowed to work on the dictionary and be a lexicographer would the early dictionary’s have been different?
"Words change over time, you see. The way they look, the way they sound; sometimes even their meaning changes. They have their own history."
A wonderfully well researched historical fiction based on the true story of James Murray’s work. Including the suffrage movement, Great War & women’s untold roles in history. At times intense & melancholic at others, super informative & compelling. Spanning from 1887-1989 it is quite a slow read that covers a lot of ground.
Esme is the only daughter of her widowed father and they share a love of words together. At 8 years old she spends her days under the table waiting for words on slips of paper to fall down or be dropped by the men in the back garden shed scriptorium. They are compiling the words for the Oxford English dictionary but Esme begins to save these lost words and start a dictionary of her own with the help of her house servant Lizzie. As she gets old she starts to seek out these lost words, the ones deemed too “impolite” or too “female” to be included in the men’s dictionary. Bondmaid is dropped and Cunt is ‘found’ at the market for example. She becomes pregnant and leaves to stay with her amazing aunt for a while and gives the baby up for adoption to a wonderful couple. She becomes quite depressed after that and seems to struggle with it her whole life. But the women around her constantly pick her up and support each-other. Even Lizzie who does not agree with the way that Esme lives her life and the choices she makes because they are not godly. All of the women in the book are very different and great in their own ways!
If war could change the nature of men, it would surely change the nature of words.
“thought about all the words I'd collected from Mabel and from Lizzie and from other women: women who gutted fish or cut cloth or cleaned the ladies' public convenience on Magdalen Street. They spoke their minds in words that suited them, and were reverent as I wrote their words on slips. These slips were precious to me, and I hid them in the trunk to keep them safe.
But from what? Did I fear they would be scrutinised and found deficient? Or were those fears I had for myself? I never dreamed the givers had any hopes for their words beyond my slips, but it was suddenly clear that no one but me would ever read them. The women's names, so carefully written, would never be set in type. Their words and their names would be lost as soon as I began to forget them. My Dictionary of Lost Words was no better than the grille in the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons: it hid what should be seen and silenced what should be heard.”
"Words change over time, you see. The way they look, the way they sound; sometimes even their meaning changes. They have their own history."
A wonderfully well researched historical fiction based on the true story of James Murray’s work. Including the suffrage movement, Great War & women’s untold roles in history. At times intense & melancholic at others, super informative & compelling. Spanning from 1887-1989 it is quite a slow read that covers a lot of ground.
Esme is the only daughter of her widowed father and they share a love of words together. At 8 years old she spends her days under the table waiting for words on slips of paper to fall down or be dropped by the men in the back garden shed scriptorium. They are compiling the words for the Oxford English dictionary but Esme begins to save these lost words and start a dictionary of her own with the help of her house servant Lizzie. As she gets old she starts to seek out these lost words, the ones deemed too “impolite” or too “female” to be included in the men’s dictionary. Bondmaid is dropped and Cunt is ‘found’ at the market for example. She becomes pregnant and leaves to stay with her amazing aunt for a while and gives the baby up for adoption to a wonderful couple. She becomes quite depressed after that and seems to struggle with it her whole life. But the women around her constantly pick her up and support each-other. Even Lizzie who does not agree with the way that Esme lives her life and the choices she makes because they are not godly. All of the women in the book are very different and great in their own ways!
If war could change the nature of men, it would surely change the nature of words.
“thought about all the words I'd collected from Mabel and from Lizzie and from other women: women who gutted fish or cut cloth or cleaned the ladies' public convenience on Magdalen Street. They spoke their minds in words that suited them, and were reverent as I wrote their words on slips. These slips were precious to me, and I hid them in the trunk to keep them safe.
But from what? Did I fear they would be scrutinised and found deficient? Or were those fears I had for myself? I never dreamed the givers had any hopes for their words beyond my slips, but it was suddenly clear that no one but me would ever read them. The women's names, so carefully written, would never be set in type. Their words and their names would be lost as soon as I began to forget them. My Dictionary of Lost Words was no better than the grille in the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons: it hid what should be seen and silenced what should be heard.”