# OED Appeal: “Meanderings of Memory”, do you know of this book?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oed-appeal-meanderings-of-memory-do-you-know-of-this-book/658669>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 18, 2013, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oed-appeal-meanderings-of-memory-do-you-know-of-this-book/658669 "2013-05-18T11:11:44Z")\
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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oed-appeal-meanderings-of-memory-do-you-know-of-this-book/658669/1 "2013-05-18T11:11:44Z")

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> **[Have You Seen This Book? An O.E.D. Mystery](https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/have-you-seen-this-book-an-o-e-d-mystery)**
>
> On Friday afternoon, the Oxford English Dictionary’s Web site appealed to the public for help in identifying a mysterious book, “Meanderings of Memory.”

> [@](#):
>
> On Friday afternoon, the Oxford English Dictionary’s Web site appealed to the public for help in identifying a mysterious book, “Meanderings of Memory.” The book is cited as an early source for words like “chapelled” (“adj. placed or stationed in a chapel”), “revirginize” (“trans. to render virginal again”) and forty-seven others. “We have been unable to trace this title in library catalogues or text databases,” they announced,

> **[Oxford English Dictionary](https://www.oed.com/?tl=true)**
>
> The OED is the definitive record of the English language, featuring 600,000 words, 3 million quotations, and over 1,000 years of English.

> [@](#):
>
> Meanderings of Memory  
> unknown source
> 
> A number of quotations in the OED derive from a book with the title Meanderings of Memory. However, we have been unable to trace this title in library catalogues or text databases. All these quotations have a date of 1852, and some cite the author as ‘Nightlark’.
> 
> The only evidence for this book’s existence that we have yet been able to find is a single entry in a bookseller’s catalogue:
> 
> _(There’s an image of the catalogue entry at the link.)_
> 
> Have you ever seen a copy of this book? Can you identify the ‘well-known connoisseur’ mentioned by the bookseller?

The people on this board have a track record of answering obscure questions. Maybe someone here knows about this book.