How often haven't you asked yourself why there was no word for expressing a complex feeling or situation? I've come across many of these words while scrolling through linguistics memes. Take as an example the word defenestration. This simple word means, and I quote, "The act of throwing or pushing someone out of a window". So I wondered how society must have been to have coined this word, was it a common thing to do? If so, it must have been fun... Or take the word wamblecropt, nice to hear or say aloud but which we would prefer not to really mean it. What about banloca? To be honest I love the fact that instead of saying the word "body" one can adorn their sentences with this descriptive word meaning "body enclosure" or "bone locker". Overmorrow, an archaic word many people believed not to exist.

Oddly-specific words such as alpenglow, which derives from the German word Alpenglühen and which I take as my favorite, alludes to the warm light that reflects off the mountains before sunrise or after sunset; petrichor, referring to the smell of the rain after a long dry; tintinnabulation, the sound of ringing bells; among others were the sort of things I expected to find within the book I'm currently reading: "Dictionary of Lost Words".

Just by reading the title I imagined myself delving into the deepest part of a language, unveiling the most unthinkable and strange words used in previous times (yes, when it comes to languages, history, and books I tend to give full rein to my imagination).

I decided to give it a try so I read the description and, though it was not exactly what I was expecting, I liked what the narrative proposes, plus it gave me more ideas about what to write as my next Journaly entry (might research more about these oddly-specific words).

I haven't finished this book by Pip Williams yet, unfortunately time is not on my side, but I am enjoying every single word in this book. I loved how she narrates the childhood of Esme, growing up amongst the work of her father, who is a lexicographer; and falling in love with words while spending lots of time in the 'scriptorium', which is a garden shed where scholars could work on words and definitions to build a new dictionary.

The way she and her father bonded over their affection for language evokes me memories of my grandparents who instilled in me a love for reading and thus contributing to what I have become.

One of the things I like is that as Esme learns some of these words, she tries to include them on her daily life and sometimes, when you have almost forgotten them, she brings them up. On the other hand, I am being immersed in one of Esme's periods of sadness, which seems to be more frequent as years pass and the story is taking a new course which I am not sure I will like. But who knows? Anything could happen and I might end up loving it.

Another thing that I found interesting is the fact that many people and events that are mentioned were real. This just increases my curiosity towards the rest of the story, but also leads me to investigate beyond.

I'll keep reading it and hopefully, by the time I finish it, I'll come back and give my opinion about it.