The Dictionary Of Lost Words Quotes
"Some words are more important than others—I learned this, growing up in the Scriptorium."
"Words change over time, you see. The way they look, the way they sound; sometimes even their meaning changes. They have their own history."
"Never forget that, Esme. Words are our tools of resurrection."
"When you’re older things will change, I promise."
"What happens to the words that are left out?"
"They go back in the pigeon-holes. If there isn’t enough information about them, they’re discarded."
"But they might be forgotten if they’re not in the Dictionary."
"Our job is to find consensus. We search through books to see how a word is used, then we come up with meanings that make sense of them all."
"Our job, surely, is to chronicle, not judge."
"I guess I like to keep me hands busy. And it proves I exist."
"Everything I do gets eaten or dirtied or burned—at the end of a day there’s no proof I’ve been here at all."
"I feel like a dandelion just before the wind blows."
"My world beneath the sorting table felt less comfortable."
"Convention has never done any woman any good."
"I found myself abandoned and alone in the world."
"Most alarming, he reports that you avoid the Scrippy and spend all day in your room."
"Are you eating, Esme? You were so thin when I saw you last."
"Something was happening at Cauldshiels, wasn’t it, Esme?"
"I should have paid more attention to what was missing in your letters, Esme."
"You are in my heart, dear girl, even if I have been dislodged from yours."
"I don’t want to be a cook; I want to be an editor."
"Because I’ll have to look after babies and cook all day."
"If you’re not going to get married, then why not aim to become an editor?"
"Consensus is not always possible, Esme, but consistency is, and Hart’s little book of rules has been the final arbiter of many an argument."
"The Dictionary has taken on the status of unquestionable authority in my mind."
"It’s not just tired from lack of sleep; it’s tired from work—physical work."
"I’d been taking words for years—reading them, remembering them, rescuing them."
"Blank paper was not always available to some of the volunteers."
"I often wondered what kind of slip I would be written on if I was a word."
"Words don’t lie around waiting for some light-fingered girl to pick them up."
"Because I think they’re just as important as the words Dr. Murray and Da collect."
"I get up before dawn to make sure everyone in the big house will be warm and fed when they wake, and I don’t go to sleep till they is snoring. I feel knackered half the time, like a worn-out horse. No good for nothing."
"If it’s not written down, we can’t verify the meaning."
"Words change as they are passed from mouth to mouth; their meanings stretch or truncate to fit what needs to be said."
"Vulgar words, as you call them, are the usual casualties. No matter the evidence for their inclusion, there are some who would wish such words away."
"A vulgar word, well placed and said with just enough vigour, can express far more than its polite equivalent."
"It’s about seeing something before it’s fully formed. Watching it evolve."
"I find that the more I define, the less I know."
"Trust your judgement, Essy, about what ideas and experiences should be included, and what should not."
"You have a womb, don't you? A cunt? A brain capable of making a decision?"
"All we're doing is putting pieces of paper in letterboxes. At worst they will be thrown in the fire; at best they will be read and a mind might change."
"Without the vote nothing we say matters, and that should terrify you."
"You do everyone’s bidding, Lizzie, but you have no say."
"It’s the kind of pain that achieves something."
"I reckon it’s the first time he’s noticed me."
"It’s not about forgiveness, Essymay. We can’t always make the choices we’d like, but we can try to make the best of what we must settle for."
"I feel him more here than I ever have in church. Out here it’s like we’re stripped of all our clothes, of the callouses on our hands that tell our place, of our accents and words. He cares for none of it."
"A good walk. It does one the world of good, don’t you agree?"
"He looked at me as if trying to judge the truth of my answer."
"I have made mistakes, Da, and I have made choices."
"The smallest thing can cause the biggest arguments."
"I’m working more slowly and making more errors than ever."
"The mere fact of its being used in a vulgar way does not ban it from the English language."
"I recognised something of my own attitude in this posture."
"The insides of our desks, our stockings, our drawers. I never understood why they mattered."
"If it isn’t written down, it doesn’t even get considered."
"The words most often used to define us were words that described our function in relation to others."
"What was the male equivalent of maiden? I could not think of it."
"It was a kind of rape. The weight of bodies holding you down, restraining your clawing hands and kicking feet. Forcing you open."
"Without realising it, you are already working for this cause."
"The familiar sound of Gareth’s bicycle was reason enough to leave it unfinished."
"Sometimes action can make a lie of good words."
"It’s all talk though, isn’t it? The same words over and over again, and what’s changed?"
"They might just think you’re mad and dangerous. They won’t negotiate with that."
"But common isn’t a prerequisite for the Dictionary."
"An example to the gentlemen of the sorting table."
"I wanted the flowers to stay. Not to rot, but to stay, slightly wilting, for eternity."
"Grief was all I could feel. It crowded my thoughts and filled my heart and left no room for anything else."
"I walked out with Gareth every now and then. If it rained we would have lunch in Jericho, but if the weather was fine we walked along the Cherwell."
"LOSS: 'Sorry for your loss, they say. And I want to know what they mean, because it's not just my boys I've lost. I've lost my motherhood, my chance to be a grandmother.'"
"I tried to imagine it in France, but couldn't."
"The notion kept me awake at night and I’d watch him sleep. It had me touching him unnecessarily, and at odd times."
"I picked it up to see what poem Gareth had been reading. 'The Dead.' I put it down again."
"It is context, Da had always said, that gives meaning."
"If war could change the nature of men, it would surely change the nature of words."
"But I couldn’t bring myself to sit among the wounded. When I imagine it, they all have Gareth’s face."
"The poets will see to that. They have a way of adding nuance to the meaning of things."
"I do not place much stock in marriage, but yours to Gareth is right in every way."
"If you keep your ears open, you might pick up a word or two."
"I think now I can imagine a little of what it’s like for them."
"The words I have are pale and slight against the hulking force of this experience."
"I’ve been hugging him when I arrived and when I left, and once or twice in between."
"It wasn’t my place to judge what you said or how you said it. I just wanted to record, and maybe understand."
"Anything important that’s been written down, they keep. Every book, every manuscript, every letter written from Lord Whatsit to Professor Who-knows-what."
"It is a topic of significance, sir. It fills a gap in knowledge, and surely that is the purpose of scholarship."
"You are not the arbiter of knowledge, sir. You are its librarian."
"Bonded for life by love, devotion or obligation."
"I’ve been a bondmaid to you since you were small, Essymay, and I’ve been glad for every day of it."
"It defines me, Lizzie. I wouldn’t know who I was without it."
"I have followed all avenues of enquiry and am satisfied I have enough for an accurate entry."
"My account will seep into your dreams, and it will be me lying in the mud, my eyes like glass, bits of me blown away."
"I feel I should tell you something more of her, besides her death."
"Words define us, they explain us, and, on occasion, they serve to control or isolate us."
"The Dictionary, like the English language, is a work in progress."
"For a while, this beautiful, troubling word belonged to my mother."