Word of the Day: BOHEMIAN

History's free spirited hipsters

bohemian (adj) - socially and culturally unconventional; adopting an artistic, alternative, or nonconformist lifestyle or attitude [boh-hee-mee-uhn]

• a bohemian is someone who adopts an unconventional, eclectic, sometimes vagabond lifestyle or attitude

• Bohemianism describes various resurgent cultural movements that embrace nonconformism, artistic expression, and poverty in equal measure

• boho chic refers to a fashion style inspired by the free-spirited eclecticism of bohemians

BREAKDOWN: Modern Bohemia is a western region in the Czech Republic but was historically a much larger kingdom. While the Lands of the Bohemian Crown did not necessarily cultivate unconventional attitudes towards art and society, those traits were associated with the Romani people, the gypsies of popular culture. The French term for the Romani people was la bohème, from which the term geographically independent usage of bohemian was born.

“Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature.” —Arthur Conan Doyle

[Our Wednesday Wildcards are fascinating and important words that are not necessarily derived from classical roots.]