The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
The term “bondmaid” was found to be absent from the Oxford English Dictionary in 1901. The girl who stole it is the subject of this tale. Esme, who lacks a mother and is insatiably curious, spends her early years in Oxford’s Scriptorium, a garden shed where her father and a group of lexicographers are collecting words for the first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s home is hidden from view and audible above the sorting table. She once witnesses a slip of paper with the word “bondmaid” on it flutter to the ground unclaimed.
Esme gradually comes to understand that some words are valued more highly than others and that expressions of women’s experiences are frequently left out of dictionaries. She starts gathering words for The Dictionary of Lost Words, another dictionary.
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
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The main character, Esme, is born in 1888, and she is the daughter of an Oxford English Dictionary lexicographer, a person who writes dictionaries. Her father and the maid who works for Dr Murray, the guy in charge of the OED compilation, were her only caregivers because her mother had died during childbirth. She used to frequently hide under the table where the lexicographers worked when she was a young child. She began to read while studying the words with her father and developed a fascination and respect for language. She discovers a word that was dumped on the floor at a very young age.
She tucks it inside her tiny apron pocket because she wants to own one of these unique items. She asks the servant girl Lizzie to help her hide it despite her instinctual knowledge that taking it is immoral because the property is so valuable. She is offered by Lizzie a place to hide in a tiny trunk that resides under Lid id’s bed. Esme’s collection starts off with this. The collection plays a significant role in Esme’s life. Along with the dictionary that describes her life, the collection may even be referred to as a character in the narrative.
The story of a girl born in the final years of the Victorian era serves as the only actual plot. Her opportunities are constrained by social norms. Esme complains about these limitations because they affect both her and other women. She is informed of the words that regular people, particularly women, use but which will never be in the dictionary. She makes it her goal to gather and clarify these terms in order to prevent their oblivion.
