The Dictionary of Lost Words

The young Esme Nicoll sorts through words and definitions on scraps of paper. Her father Harry teaches her how to read and say each one, until they arrive at the word “Lily”—Esme’s mother’s name. Because the word slip is incomplete, her father throws the word into the fireplace. Esme unsuccessfully tries to rescue it, burning her hand.

Esme thinks about the Scriptorium or “the Scrippy”, the garden shed where her father, his friend Dr. Murray, and other men compile the first Oxford English Dictionary. Harry teaches Esme new words that volunteers submit from all over the world, and together they read Ala-ed-Din and the Wonderful Lamp. While the men work, Esme hides under the table. One day, a paper scrap with the word “Bondmaid,” an archaic term for a female enslaved person, falls and Esme hides it away. Her father once told her that some words would be left out of the Dictionary because they hadn’t been written down. She found this confusing, since a word that wasn’t included might be forgotten.

After showing the “Bondmaid” slip to the Murrays’ maid, Lizzie, Esme asks her father about working in service, beginning to understand that her life and Lizzie’s are not the same.