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bohemian - 7 dictionary results

Bo⋅he⋅mi⋅an

[boh-hee-mee-uhn]
–noun
1. a native or inhabitant of Bohemia.
2. (usually lowercase) a person, as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free of regard for conventional rules and practices.
3. the Czech language, esp. as spoken in Bohemia.
4. a Gypsy.
–adjective
5. of or pertaining to Bohemia, its people, or their language.
6. (usually lowercase) pertaining to or characteristic of the unconventional life of a bohemian.
7. living a wandering or vagabond life, as a Gypsy.

Origin:
1570–80; Bohemi(a) + -an


Bo⋅he⋅mi⋅an⋅ism, noun
bo·he·mi·an   (bō-hē'mē-ən)   
n.  A person with artistic or literary interests who disregards conventional standards of behavior.

[French bohémien, from Bohême, Bohemia (from the unconventional lifestyle of Gypsies, erroneously supposed to have come from there).]
bo·he'mi·an adj., bo·he'mi·an·ism n.
Bo·he·mi·an   (bō-hē'mē-ən)   
n.  
  1. A native or inhabitant of Bohemia.
  2. The Czech dialects of Bohemia.
    1. A Gypsy.
    2. An itinerant person; a vagabond.

[Sense 3, translation of French bohémien; see bohemian.]

Bohemian

Bo*he"mi*an\, a. 1. Of or pertaining to Bohemia, or to the language of its ancient inhabitants or their descendants. See Bohemian, n., 2.

2. Of or pertaining to a social gypsy or "Bohemian" (see Bohemian, n., 3); vagabond; unconventional; free and easy. [Modern]

Hers was a pleasant Bohemian life till she was five and thirty. --Blackw. Mag.

Artists have abandoned their Bohemian manners and customs nowadays. --W. Black.

Bohemian chatterer, or Bohemian waxwing (Zo["o]l.), a small bird of Europe and America (Ampelis garrulus); the waxwing.

Bohemian glass, a variety of hard glass of fine quality, made in Bohemia. It is of variable composition, containing usually silica, lime, and potash, rarely soda, but no lead. It is often remarkable for beauty of color.

Bohemian

Bo*he"mi*an\, n. 1. A native of Bohemia.

2. The language of the Czechs (the ancient inhabitants of Bohemia), the richest and most developed of the dialects of the Slavic family.

3. A restless vagabond; -- originally, an idle stroller or gypsy (as in France) thought to have come from Bohemia; in later times often applied to an adventurer in art or literature, of irregular, unconventional habits, questionable tastes, or free morals. [Modern]

Note: In this sense from the French boh['e]mien, a gypsy; also, a person of irregular habits.

She was of a wild, roving nature, inherited from father and mother, who were both Bohemians by taste and circumstances. --Thackeray.

bohemian

A descriptive term for a stereotypical way of life for artists and intellectuals. According to the stereotype, bohemians live in material poverty because they prefer their art or their learning to lesser goods; they are also unconventional in habits and dress, and sometimes in morals.


bohemian 
"a gypsy of society," 1848, from Fr. bohemién (1559), from the country name, from M.Fr. Boheme "Bohemia," from L. Boiohaemum (Tacitus), from Boii, the Celtic people who settled in what is now Bohemia (and were driven from it by the Gmc. Marcomans early 1c.). The modern sense is perhaps from the use of this country name since 15c. in Fr. for "gypsy" (they were believed falsely to have come from there, though their first appearance in W.Europe may have been from there), or from association with Bohemian heretics. It was popularized by Henri Murger's 1845 story collection "Scenes de la Vie de Boheme," the basis of Puccini's "La Bohème." Used in Eng. 1848 in Thackary's "Vanity Fair."
"The term 'Bohemian' has come to be very commonly accepted in our day as the description of a certain kind of literary gipsey, no matter in what language he speaks, or what city he inhabits .... A Bohemian is simply an artist or littérateur who, consciously or unconsciously, secedes from conventionality in life and in art." ["Westminster Review," 1862]
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