We explain what a bohemian is, his relationship with the Bohemian region and with art. Also, examples of its use in sentences.
What does bohemian mean?
The term bohemian in Spanish can have different meanings, all related in one way or another to the idea of living life in a disordered, chaotic or free way without being governed by the social conventions and laws of others.
Let's start at the beginning: Bohemia is a region of central Europe today located in the current Czech Republic, along with Moravia and Silesia. Its name derives from the Boii, a Celtic tribe that inhabited the region around the 5th century BC. C and which later formed part of the Roman Empire.
Therefore, In later times, those who were born in the region were called “bohemians.” without any other connotation than the demonym.
However, at some point it was thought that gypsies, characterized by their nomadic, disorganized life, and always viewed with distrust by the rest of Europe, were natives of said central region of the continent, and The term bohemian began to be used as a synonym for “gypsy” a meaning that it still retains today.
Therefore, it was also used to call those who, precisely, live life as if they were gypsies: without respecting conventions, without sitting still for long, without adhering to “good customs.”
Furthermore, this last meaning, which is the one that predominates today, was reinforced in the 19th century when the French romantic novelist Henri Murger (1822-1861) wrote his famous Scéns de la vie de bohemie (“Scenes of Bohemian Life”), a series of plays in which he portrayed his life as an impoverished writer in Paris.
This work was an important inspiration for later artists, such as the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), author of the opera The bohemian (1896) in which he covered Murger's work.
It was also taken by the composers Gustave Charpentier (1860-1956), author of the opera Louise (1900), and Geroges Bizet (1838-1875), author of the famous opera Carmen (1875), the latter also inspired by the poem “The Gypsies” of 1824 by the Russian Alexandr Pushkin (1799-1837).
As we have seen, the term “bohemian” went around many times before ending up meaning what it means today: an individual little given to social conventions who aspires to live his life freely and who often has certain airs of rebellion. It is a very common term when referring to artists, writers, musicians and eccentric characters.
Examples of use of the word bohemian
Below are some phrases that exemplify the use of the term “bohemian”:
- “Your father will never approve of you marrying that musician.” Bohemian and foul-mouthed.”
- “Paris has always been the cradle of bohemians artists and rebels of the West.”
- “Keith Richards is a perfect example of the Bohemia contemporary”.
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References
- “Bohemia (culture)” on Wikipedia.
- “What is a bohemian?” on BBC News World.
- “Bohemian, mia” in the Dictionary of the language of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Bohemian” in Etymologies of Chile.net.
