Thank you to Aidan and Riley for listening when I explain the world, then challenging me to rethink everything. If I could write you into the dictionary, you would be a simple, uncomplicated variant of love.
And to Shannon, whose attention to detail and fondness for limericks made all the difference. There is no single word that explains what you mean to me, no dictionary meaning that defines how I feel. Thank you for welcoming my writing life into your everyday, and making generous adjustments whenever it needs a little more space. This book, as with everything, is ours.
RESPECT
To treat or regard with deference, esteem, or honour; to feel or show respect for.
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 DICTIONARY1857 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 10th July 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 NOVEL1894 South Australian Parliament passes the Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act. This act grants all adult women (including Aboriginal women) the right to vote and the right to stand for Parliament. It is the first parliament in the world to do so.1897 National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) formed, led by Millicent Fawcett.1901 Queen Victoria dies. Edward VII becomes King.1902 The newly established Australian Parliament passes the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, enabling all adult women to vote at Federal elections or stand for Federal Parliament (except those who are ‘aboriginal natives’ of Australia, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands).1903 Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) formed, led by Emmeline Pankhurst.1905 WSPU begin militant campaign, including civil disobedience, destruction of property, arson and bombings.1906 The term suffragette is applied to militant suffragists.1907 Elizabeth Perronet Thompson publishes A Dragoon’s Wife.1908 Adelaide woman Muriel Matters chains herself to the grille of the Ladies Gallery in the House of Commons as part of a protest organised by the Woman’s Freedom League (WFL), a non-militant suffrage organisation.1909 Marion Wallace Dunlop is the first gaoled suffragist to go on hunger strike – many will follow.1909 Charlotte Marsh, Laura Ainsworth and Mary Leigh (née Brown) are force-fed in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham.1913 Jan 8, ‘Battle of the suffragists’. A peaceful procession of suffragist societies in Oxford is disrupted by an anti-suffrage crowd.1913 June 3, the Oxford boathouse is burned down. Four women are seen fleeing, three in a punt, one along the road. Non-militant suffragists condemn the action and collect money for laid-off workers.1914 War with Germany is declared.1914 Sixty-three men from the Oxford University Press march out of the grounds to report for duty.1914 The First Battle of Ypres.1915 The Battle of Festubert.1915 The Battle of Loos.1918 End of World War I.1918 The UK coalition government pass the Representation of the People Act, enfranchising all men over the age of twenty-one, and women over the age of thirty who meet minimum property qualifications.1928 The UK conservative government passes the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act, giving the vote to all women over the age of twenty-one on equal terms with men.
In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered
missing from the Oxford English Dictionary.
This is the story of the girl who stole it.
Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for
