Originally Posted by Bosa

I lived in Prague for years and no one has ever described themselves as Bohemian. That is a German Phrase.

Are there Czechs who refer to themselves as Bohemian?

No but Czechs have been called Bohemians by foreigners. ;-)

You know, the word “Bohemia” only refers to the “kingdom” (Western 60%) part of Czechia (Czechia has the same territory as the Czech Republic today but the apolitical name is designed to be usable across epochs). The Eastern remainder is Moravia (plus a small area of our, not Polish, Silesia). Moravia wasn’t a kingdom most of the time – in feudal times, it was just a Margravate, a province governed not directly by the king but by an aristocratic military officer (Margrave).

Bohemia is a Latin word derived from “the home of Boii” who were a Celtic tribe that lived here before the Slavs. (“Bavaria” actually means almost the same thing as “Bohemia” – “the settlement of the Boii”.) So the word “Bohemia” is completely non-Slavic and territorial – which is why it’s favored over the word “Czech” by those who could like the territory to be Germanized or who would like the Slavic elements to be suppressed in any sense. (Czechia under the Nazi occupation was known as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – note that no Slavic first names can be heard in that phrase which is no coincidence.)

However, the translation of “Bohemia” into the Czech language is “Čechy”, literally “the [inanimate] Czechs”. That word, like “Czech”, is derived from the first name of Forefather Czech, the founder of the Czech nation according to the legends (his brother Lech – note that it rhymes – was supposed to analogously establish the Polish nation – it was almost 1500 years ago, if it was true at all). So the Czech word for Bohemia is completely Slavic and ethnic!

Czechs from Bohemia are called “Češi” (“the [animate] Czechs”) in Czech. There’s no way to distinguish “Czechs [from Czechia]” and “Czechs [from Bohemia]” although these two versions of “Czechs” aren’t quite the same because the latter excludes the “Moravians”.

Nevertheless, the term “Bohemians” has appeared. It’s the name of one of the 4 important soccer clubs in Prague, FC Bohemians Praha. The team founded in 1905 went to a 4-month-long tour to Australia in 1927. The players have impressed the Australian fans tremendously. The hosts needed a catchy new name and some Australian journalist invented the term “Bohemians” for the club that was founded under the name “AFK Vršovice [a suburb of Prague]”.

That club is still called Bohemians today, is nicknamed “The Kangaroos” by Czech fans (a kangaroo was placed on their logo), and I believe it’s the only situation in which Czechs would use the term “Bohemians” for the people from Bohemia. That’s very different from the “Moravians” which should be analogous to “Bohemians” but unlike the Bohemians, the Moravians are talked about often (citizens of the smaller parts of a territory need to highlight their identity more often – that was true for Slovaks as well – while the Czechs don’t really care whether “their” country is the full Czechoslovakia or just Czechia or just Bohemia – it’s a country with the capital of Prague in all cases; in fact, during Czechoslovakia, Czechs would often arrogantly use the word “Czech” even if they meant “Czechoslovak”).

In this context, one needs to point out that the adjective “Bohemian” is also used with a different meaning – for nomadic people with a gypsy-like lifestyle (especially the lifestyle of impoverished wondering artists). Why is the same word? The explanation goes back to the 19th century when geography-illiterate French people were convinced that Bohemia was the “motherland” from which the gypsies (“Bohémien” in French) were coming to France in the 15th century (basically because Bohemia was the only country in the East of France that they knew at least something about; Bohemia got this treatment – which was understood to be hostile – partly because Bohemia was an emerging Protestant country in the 15th century, therefore heretical according to the French and other Catholics). Well, just to be sure, gypsies have roots basically in India and even within Europe, their “original” source is somewhere in the Balkans.

So this misnomer identifying gypsies with the Czech lands was created by ignorant French people in the 19th century and because of the French cultural influence, the rest of the world has just copied it. That’s why the Latin name of my Slavic country appears as a reference to the gypsy lifestyle in the “Bohemian Rhapsody”, too. ;-)

Note that Czechs won’t get offended by the linguistic connection between themselves and Bohemianism. That’s different from a reaction of my former Bulgarian classmate at the Rutgers graduate school after he learned from the Oxford Dictionary of English that “Bulgaria” was derived from “bugger” (because the Turks used to think that they were basically synonymous). He wanted to ban that damn dictionary and he was really hurt deeply. ;-)