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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 13d

Just making sure the historians don’t go getting any ideas…

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 13d

- 'Classical period' does most of that work anyway
- We over-rate the Peloponnesian War thanks to Thucydides
- People would actually have to care about the period 404-338 BC

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 16d

'etymology of soot' has quite a ring to it, reminiscent somehow of Hamlet's 'quintessence of dust'.

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 16d

Like 'nest' not immediately obvious, but logical in a perfective sort of sense: 'something which has settled'

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 16d

'sit' is, I believe, the only English word to preserve all of its original IE ablaut grades:

0: nest
e: set
long e: seat
o: sat
long o: soot

Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · 16d

Historically, the word 'nest' consists of two parts.

The part 'ne-' is related to 'nether', while '-st' is related to 'sit'.

The distant ancestor of 'nest' meant "place to sit down".

'Nest' is also related to Spanish 'nido' and its Romance relatives.

Click my new graphic to learn more:

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 21d

😬 good luck!

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 26d

Strike it not, Banquo...

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 27d

For philology qua philology, I am not convinced that this is a bad thing; but there is of course more to Classics than constituting a text.

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · 27d

I am reminded, reading this, of the anecdote about Shackleton Bailey refusing to attend a conference entitled 'What is Philology?' on the grounds that he would rather be doing it. To its practitioners, the project is so self-evident that introspection becomes heresy.

R F Kennedy (not Jr.) @kataplexis.bsky.social · 28d

Philology: the Best of All Possible Methods? A response to the apology.

planudes.medium.com/the-best-of-...

The Best of All Possible Methods

The Gold and Katz Defense of Philology

planudes.medium.com

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Sep 4

This would be the end of international PhD students in America: www.chronicle.com/newsletter/l...

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 30

Nice one! Very very hard to find at a reasonable price.

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Reposted by Theo Nash

Neville Morley @nevillemorley.bsky.social · Aug 29

Chicago Classics as Rorschach blot, and ‘divide and rule’ in the 21st-century university.

thesphinxblog.com/2025/08/29/r...

Rats In A Sack

On the one hand, what’s happening in the University of Chicago – the (supposedly temporary) suspension of recruitment to PhD programmes in Classics as well as other disciplines that require s…

thesphinxblog.com

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 28

The cynic in me says the exam will be back within three years.

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 27

The American School of Classical Studies seems to have removed the traditional exam for the Regular Year, opting instead to interview students: www.ascsa.edu.gr/programs/reg...

• An Interview (on Zoom) with members of the Admissions and Fellowships Committee will be scheduled following the deadline for applications. The Committee's questions will be circulated in advance of the application deadline.

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 24

genai.umich.edu/resources/st...

U-M Guidance for Students | U-M Generative AI

genai.umich.edu

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 22

No: what it’s saying is that you have an ethical responsibility to improve yourself and society with the help of AI. It is disastrously written and they may not have intended these connections, but they are there in that prose.

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 22

I agree to an extent, but this is also the university’s official advice to students on the use of AI. An undergrad could reasonably cite it in a dispute with an instructor. At bare minimum it intolerably sloppy.

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 22

Except that the way they have said it explicitly links bettering yourself and society with the use of AI.

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Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 22

No, they’re saying that you have the potential to improve society by using GenAI, and have a responsibility to do so. They may have intended something else, but that’s what the sentence says.

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