The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams

 

Characters/People

Esme Nicoll Da – father  Lily – mother, deceased   Edith Thompson “Ditte” – godmother Elizabeth “Beth” – sister, A Dragoon’s Wife, 1907   Mrs. Murray 11 children   Mrs. Ballard – cook Lizzie – servant   Mabel O’Shaughnessy – market stall   Tilda Taylor – actress, suffragette Bill – brother Little Billy Bunting – Bill’s son   Phillip Brooks Sarah – wife Megan – Esme’s daughter, adopted by Phillip and Sarah   Cauldshields School – 1987 to 1898   Cobbler’s Dingle Mr. Lloyd Natasha – wife, became Lizzie’s friend Tommy – son   Radcliffe Infirmary Angus Private Albert Northrop “Bertie”   Esperanto - “world’s most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language” (Wikipedia)

Scriptorium Dr. James Murray, editor Da – Mr. Harry Nicoll Mr. Mitchell – two colors of socks Mr. Maling Mr. Balk Mr. Fred Sweatman Mr. Dankworth – unauthorized corrections Mr. Crane – fired, too many errors Mr. Yockney Mr. Rawlings – took Da’s place Murray daughters: Elsie, Rosfrith   Oxford University Press Mr. Hart – “Hart’s Rules,” In charge of printing dictionary Gareth Owen – compositor   Old Ashmolean – Dictionary Room – August 1901 Mr. Bradley – second editor Mr. Craigie – third editor Eleanor Bradley   Bodleian Library Mr. Nicholson Mr. Madden – Nicholson’s successor

 

 

 

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       Did reading this book make you think about words differently?

a.       Page 89 – words only included in dictionary “if someone great had written them down.”

b.       Page 127 – words “change as they are passed from mouth to mouth; their meanings stretch or truncate to fit what needs to be said.”

c.       Page 129 – “A vulgar word, well placed and said with just enough vigour, can express far more that its polite equivalent.”

d.       Page 181 – regarding swear words, “They are like bullets, full of energy, and when you give one breath you can feel its sharp edge against your lip.  It can be quite cathartic in the right context.”

2.       Which characters did you particularly like, or dislike?  How well did the author bring them to life?

3.       When Lizzie met Natasha at Cobbler’s Dingle, that was the first friend she ever had.  How did that friendship add to her life?

4.       Discuss Lizzie and Mabel O’Shaughnessy.  Lizzie told Esme, “Nothing I ever said has been written down” (page 103).  How did it make them feel when Esme wrote down what they said?  Also, Lizzie said she did needlepoint because “it proves I exist…Everything I do gets eaten, dirtied or burned – at the end of the day there’s no proof I’ve been here at all” (page 33).  Do you think someone could have those feelings today?

5.       What did you think about Esme’s time working in the hospital with Bertie and the use of Esperanto? 

6.       When Esme thinks about her daughter, the words “Her” and “She” are capitalized.  What did that signify?

7.       At the end of the book, Esme and Lizzie took Women’s Words and Their Meanings to show Mr. Madden at the Bodleian Library.  Even in 1915 he told her the book was “of no scholarly importance” (page 338).  Esme replied, “It fills a gap in knowledge, and surely that is the purpose of scholarship” (page 338).  Were you surprised that nothing had changed since 1887?

8.       What did you learn from this book about the evolution of women’s roles in the early 1900’s?  How important was the inclusion of women’s suffrage to the story of the dictionary?

9.       How does the way people speak and the words they use influence how you regard them?