BOHEMIAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Bohemian mean? 

• BOHEMIAN (noun)
  The noun BOHEMIAN has 3 senses:

1. a member of a people with dark skin and hair who speak Romany and who traditionally live by seasonal work and fortunetelling; they are believed to have originated in northern India but now are living on all continents (but mostly in Europe, North Africa, and North America)

2. a native or inhabitant of Bohemia in the Czech Republic

3. a nonconformist writer or artist who lives an unconventional life

  Familiarity information: BOHEMIAN used as a noun is uncommon.

• BOHEMIAN (adjective)
  The adjective BOHEMIAN has 2 senses:

1. of or relating to Bohemia or its language or people

2. unconventional in especially appearance and behavior

  Familiarity information: BOHEMIAN used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BOHEMIAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A member of a people with dark skin and hair who speak Romany and who traditionally live by seasonal work and fortunetelling; they are believed to have originated in northern India but now are living on all continents (but mostly in Europe, North Africa, and North America)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Bohemian; Gipsy; Gypsy; Roma; Romani; Romany; Rommany

Hypernyms ("Bohemian" is a kind of...):

Indian (a native or inhabitant of India)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Bohemian"):

gitana (a Spanish female Gypsy)

gitano (a Spanish male Gypsy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A native or inhabitant of Bohemia in the Czech Republic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Bohemian" is a kind of...):

European (a native or inhabitant of Europe)

Holonyms ("Bohemian" is a part of...):

Czech Republic (a landlocked republic in central Europe; separated from Slovakia in 1993)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A nonconformist writer or artist who lives an unconventional life

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("bohemian" is a kind of...):

nonconformist; recusant (someone who refuses to conform to established standards of conduct)

• BOHEMIAN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to Bohemia or its language or people

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Pertainym:

Bohemia (a historical area and former kingdom in the Czech Republic)

Derivation:

Bohemia (a historical area and former kingdom in the Czech Republic)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unconventional in especially appearance and behavior

Context example:

a bohemian life style

Similar:

unconventional (not conforming to accepted rules or standards)

Derivation:

bohemia (a group of artists and writers with real or pretended artistic or intellectual aspirations and usually an unconventional life style)

 Context examples 

The other rushed onwards, and breaking between Du Guesclin and Sir Nigel he dashed out the brains of the Bohemian with a single blow of his clumsy weapon.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Such were the total effects of this strange American Bohemian.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And the arrangements were as primitive as the most Bohemian could wish.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sometimes I am fairly sure I am out of water, and that I should belong in Paris, in Grub Street, in a hermit's cave, or in some sadly wild Bohemian crowd, drinking claret,—dago-red they call it in San Francisco,—dining in cheap restaurants in the Latin Quarter, and expressing vociferously radical views upon all creation.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Yet it was merely a very pretty drawing-room, and within it a boudoir, both spread with white carpets, on which seemed laid brilliant garlands of flowers; both ceiled with snowy mouldings of white grapes and vine-leaves, beneath which glowed in rich contrast crimson couches and ottomans; while the ornaments on the pale Parian mantelpiece were of sparkling Bohemian glass, ruby red; and between the windows large mirrors repeated the general blending of snow and fire.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“If we can but keep them in play,” said the Bohemian, “it is likely that these flames may bring us succor if there be any true men in the country.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It only remains, therefore, to discover what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and prefers wearing a mask to showing his face.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As he spoke, a French squire and the Bohemian knight came rushing down the steps, the latter bleeding from a slash across his forehead.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had returned to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come and visit us.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)