Bohemian
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This SourceBohemians are the people of Bohemia, in the Czech Republic, inhabitants of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, located in the modern day Czech Republic. The name derives from the Latin term for the Celtic tribe inhabiting that area, the Boii, who were called Boiohaemum in the early Middle Ages. The word "Bohemians" was never used by the local Czech (Slavic) population. In Czech, the region since the early Middle Ages has been called only "Čechy" (Bohemia) or "Království české" (Kingdom of Bohemia), and its mainly Czech-speaking inhabitants were called "Češi".
In other European vernaculars and in Latin (as Bohemi), the word "Bohemian" or a derivate was used to designate all inhabitants of Bohemia. If the Czech ethnic origin was to be stressed, combinations like "Bohemian of Bohemian language" (Čech českého jazyka), "a real Bohemian" (pravý Čech) etc. were used.
It was not until the 19th century that other European languages began to use the word "Czechs" (in English — Tschechen in German, tchèques in French) in a deliberate (and successful) attempt to distinguish between ethnic Czechs and other inhabitants of Bohemia. Currently, "Bohemians" is still used when there is need to distinguish between inhabitants of the western part (Bohemia) of the Czech Republic, and the eastern (Moravia) + northeastern part (Silesia).
See also
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Last updated on Sunday March 02, 2008 at 12:46:53 PST (GMT -0800)
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