bohemian
pronunciation
How to pronounce bohemian in British English:
UK [bəʊˈhi:miən]
How to pronounce bohemian in American English:
US [boʊˈhimiən]
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- Noun:
- a nonconformist writer or artist who lives an unconventional life
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- Adjective:
- unconventional in especially appearance and behavior
Word Origin
- bohemian (n.)
- "a gypsy of society," 1848, from French bohemién (1550s), from the country name (see Bohemia). The modern sense is perhaps from the use of this country name since 15c. in French for "gypsy" (they were wrongly believed to have come from there, though their first appearance in Western Europe may have been directly from there), or from association with 15c. 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 English 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]
Example
- 1. What is the bohemian grove ?
- 2. The artsy mm embodies understated bohemian style .
- 3. Kind , wise and modest , he was a bohemian in the true and original sense .
- 4. But , twenty-five years after her husband 's death , my grandmother decided that the money was running out and she stopped subsidizing her bohemian son in paris .
- 5. But the nationalist dream survived and , as the austro-hungarian empire tottered towards its finale in the 19th century , bohemian prague once again lifted its voice .