The Dictionary of Lost Words

by Pip Williams

“But when we talk about her, she comes to life.” “Never forget that, Esme. Words are our tools of resurrection.”

“Me needlework will always be here,” she said. “I see this and I feel…well, I don’t know the word. Like I’ll always be here.”

decided that the absence of women did matter. A lack of representation might mean that the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was biased in favour of the experiences and sensibilities of men. Older, white, Victorian-era men at that.

The word “bondmaid” was discovered missing from the first volume of words in 1901. It should have been between “bondly” and “bondman,” but it wasn’t. The word means slave girl, and no one knows how it went missing. It is a mystery ripe for solving, I thought, and that is when the seed of an idea for a story began to grow.