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Back The Dictionary of Lost Words
Chapters (42)
  1. Map
  2. Prologue | February 1886
  3. PART 1 | 1887–1896
  4. May 1887
  5. April 1888
  6. April 1891
  7. August 1893
  8. September 1896
  9. PART 2 | 1897–1901
  10. August 1897
  11. April 1898
  12. September 1898
  13. August 1901
  14. PART 3 | 1902–1907
  15. May 1902
  16. May 1906
  17. June 1906
  18. December 1906
  19. March 1907
  20. PART 4 | 1907–1913
  21. September 1907
  22. November 1907
  23. November 1908
  24. May 1909
  25. December 1912
  26. January 1913
  27. May 1913
  28. PART 5 | 1914–1915
  29. August 1914
  30. May 1915
  31. July 1915
  32. September 1915
  33. PART 6 | 1928
  34. November 1928
  35. Epilogue | Adelaide, 1989
  36. Author’s Note
  37. Dedication
  38. Acknowledgements
  39. Timeline of the Oxford English Dictionary
  40. Timeline of Major Historical Events Featured in the Novel
  41. About the Author
  42. What’s next onyour reading list?

Finally, I acknowledge that this book has been written on Kaurna and Peramangk Countries. For millennia, the languages of these first peoples was shared through oral storytelling, and the words they used gave meaning to their landscape, their cultures and their beliefs. While many of these words have been lost to time, others have been found. They are being shared anew.

I pay my respects to the elders of the Kaurna and Peramangk Peoples, past, present and emerging. I acknowledge their stories and their languages, and I have the deepest respect for the meaning of what has been lost.

Timeline of the Oxford English Dictionary

1857 The Unregistered Words Committee of the Philological Society of London calls for a new English Dictionary to succeed Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755).
1879 James Murray appointed as Editor.
1881 Edith Thompson publishes History of England (Pictorial course for schools)—multiple editions follow as well as adaptations for American and Canadian markets.
1884 “A to Ant” published. It is the first of approx. 125 fascicles.
1885 James and Ada Murray move from London to Oxford, erecting a large corrugated iron shed in the garden of their house. The house is known as Sunnyside. The shed is known as the Scriptorium.
1885 Pillar post box placed outside Sunnyside in recognition of the high volume of mail generated by the Scriptorium.
1887 Henry Bradley appointed as second Editor.
1888 A and B published. It is the first of twelve volumes originally titled A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles.
1901 William Craigie appointed as third Editor.
1901 Bradley and Craigie move into the “Dictionary Room” at the Old Ashmolean.
1901 Bondmaid discovered missing following a letter from a member of the public.
1914 Charles Onions appointed as fourth Editor.
1915 Sir James Murray dies.
1915 Staff and contents of the Scriptorium are moved to the Old Ashmolean.
1928 V to Z published as Volume 12.
1928 150 men gather in London’s Goldsmiths’ Hall to celebrate the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary, seventy-one years after it was proposed. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin presides. Women are not invited, though three are allowed to sit in the balcony and watch the men eat. Edith Thompson is one of them.
1929 Edith Thompson dies aged 81.
1989 Publication of the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Staff of the Scriptorium, Oxford. Photographed for The Periodical on July 10, 1915. (Back row) Arthur Maling, Frederick Sweatman, F. A. Yockney. (Seated) Elsie Murray, Sir James Murray, Rosfrith Murray. image reprinted with permission of oxford university press.

Timeline of Major Historical Events Featured in the Novel