An academic ghost. A name for the anxiety that every original is already a copy of something lost.

Since “acad” could refer to “academic” or “Academy” and “nusxuri” appears to be a non-standard or scrambled word (possibly from Georgian or a constructed language), I’ve interpreted it as the title of a conceptual academic fragment — a short poetic, scholarly, or cryptic piece. I. The fragment No source remains whole. What we call “acad nusxuri” exists only in a single footnote, copied by a scribe who did not understand the language he transcribed.

MS. Cod. Acad. Nusxuri 0001 One leaf, vellum, water-damaged. Last seen: Tbilisi, 1991.

“The echo is older than the voice.” But another scholar argues the original read: “A copy corrects the original.” III. Scholarly dispute The Department of Paleo-Philology (acad. division) refuses to authenticate the term. “Nusxuri” — perhaps from nuskh (copy), perhaps from a root meaning twice-written .