Summaries The Dictionary of Lost Words Pip Williams

May 1906: Esme and the Words That Shape Her World

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

In May 1906, Esme is enjoying the freedom of her new salary. She continues her Saturday shopping trips with Lizzie at the Covered Market, now with her own basket and a grocery allowance from Da. She gradually replaces worn household items and takes particular pleasure in buying Lizzie new thread at the haberdashery.

On other days, Esme visits stallholders known for their colourful speech — traders with northern and south-western accents, some Gypsy or travelling Irish, mostly women who often cannot read the words they share. Over several years she has collected more than a hundred words this way, some already in the Scriptorium's pigeon-holes but many not.

At Mabel's stall, Esme encounters Tilda, an actress with honey-blonde hair and a striking presence. Mabel identifies Tilda as a dollymop, a word Esme has never heard. With Tilda's help, Esme records the word and its definition — a woman paid for sexual favours on an occasional basis. Tilda invites Esme to the matinee of A Doll's House at New Theatre, where she plays Nora.

Esme attends alone after Da declines. The theatre is nearly empty — barely thirty people. Tilda introduces Esme to her brother Bill, a 22-year-old with freckles and treacle-dark hair. After the mediocre performance, the three go to Old Tom pub on St. Aldate's. Tilda reveals her season has been cut but she has been cast as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing with the Oxford University players. Bill casually uses the word fuck, which Esme collects.

Back at the Scriptorium, Esme searches the pigeon-holes and finds the word has more slips than most, with variant meanings and the oldest dating from the sixteenth century. Da explains that a word must have a legitimate history in the English language, and even then it may fall foul of someone's sense of decorum.

Esme tells Lizzie about her new friends; Lizzie is cautious, reaching for her crucifix at the mention of the pub. Esme adds Bill and Tilda's words to her trunk of lost words.

Esme's Bodleian errands become opportunities to visit rehearsals at New Theatre. Mr. Sweatman notices her enthusiasm. She verifies a suffrage quotation from Blackstone's Commentaries (1765). At a dress rehearsal, Bill tells Esme that her not knowing women talk about hats is what will make him fall in love with her.

The chapter closes with a letter from Ditte (May 31, 1906) about Dr. Murray's formula for word inclusion, the exclusion of vulgar words, and a suggestion that Esme ask Mr. Maling for Esperanto translations of vulgar words.

Key Events

  • Esme meets Tilda at Mabel's stall and collects the word dollymop

  • Esme attends A Doll's House matinee alone and meets Bill

  • Tilda's season is cut, but she is cast as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing

  • Esme collects fuck and discovers extensive slips in the pigeon-holes dating to the sixteenth century

  • Esme's Bodleian errands double as rehearsal visits

  • Bill declares he will fall in love with Esme

  • Ditte's letter addresses the exclusion of vulgar words from the Dictionary

Character Development

Esme — This chapter shows Esme's growing independence and expanding social world. Her salary gives her financial freedom, and her friendship with Tilda and Bill introduces her to a world outside the Scriptorium and the Covered Market. Her conversation with Mr. Sweatman reveals her developing lexicographic philosophy — words as evolving stories that the Dictionary cannot fully capture.

Tilda — Introduced as an unconventional woman who defies easy categorisation. She is an actress, unbothered by Mabel's dollymop label, and pragmatic about her career — taking the Beatrice role with a cut of the box office.

Bill — Charming, direct, and more town than gown. His casual use of profanity and his frank declaration about falling in love mark him as different from the formal men of the Scriptorium.

Da — Supportive but cautious, explaining the Dictionary's decorum-based exclusions without endorsing them.

Lizzie — Cautious and protective, her crucifix gesture signalling her discomfort with Esme's new social circle.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

The exclusion of vulgar words — The chapter directly addresses how the Dictionary's inclusion criteria are shaped by decorum rather than pure evidence. Da's explanation and Ditte's letter both acknowledge that Dr. Murray's formula is sometimes set aside when personal opinion intervenes.

Words as evolving stories — Esme's conversation with Mr. Sweatman articulates this theme: words change as they pass from mouth to mouth, and the Dictionary cannot capture every variation, especially those never written down.

Theatre as unconventional space — The theatre provides Esme with a new social world, one where women like Tilda can be actresses and where class lines blur.

Financial independence — Esme's salary enables her to replace worn household items and buy Lizzie thread, small acts of agency.

The trunk of lost words — Esme adds Bill and Tilda's words to her trunk, continuing her private collection of words excluded from the Dictionary.

Class divisions (town vs gown) — Bill is more town than gown, and the Oxford University players' invitation to Tilda bridges these worlds.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter introduces two significant new characters — Tilda and Bill — who expand Esme's world beyond the Scriptorium and the Covered Market. It also directly confronts the Dictionary's exclusion of vulgar words, showing that fuck has abundant historical evidence yet is absent from the published volumes. The chapter deepens the novel's central tension between lexicographic objectivity and personal bias, and it sets up a romantic thread with Bill that will likely develop in subsequent chapters.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Esme collect words like dollymop and fuck when she knows they will never appear in the Dictionary?

Esme's collection is driven by her recognition that the Dictionary's exclusion criteria are shaped by decorum rather than linguistic evidence. The fuck slips in the pigeon-holes demonstrate that the word has a legitimate history dating to the sixteenth century, yet it is absent from the published volumes. Esme's trunk preserves words that the Dictionary's editors have chosen to exclude, making her collection a counter-archive of the language as actually spoken.

2. What does the dollymop exchange reveal about Mabel, Tilda, and Esme's relationship?

The exchange shows Mabel as a matchmaker of sorts, identifying Tilda as a kindred spirit. Tilda's willingness to provide a sentence and definition for the word, and her amusement rather than offence, signals her unconventional nature. Esme's initial hesitation and embarrassment — feeling as though Da had asked her to turn out her pockets — shows her awareness of how her word-collecting might appear to outsiders.

3. How does Ditte's letter complicate the novel's treatment of vulgar words?

Ditte's letter presents Dr. Murray's formula as a scientific ideal that removes emotion from decisions about inclusion. But she also acknowledges that the formula has been set aside, even by its inventor, when personal opinion intervenes — and that vulgar words are the usual casualties. Her suggestion that Esme ask Mr. Maling for Esperanto translations adds a note of humour while reinforcing the point that the Dictionary's exclusions are choices, not inevitabilities.

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