1. A kingdom of central Europe, forming part of the Austrian empire. (Earlier forms were Boeme, Beme, Beeme, Bohem, Bohemy.)
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. xvi. 86. The hoole rewme of Beeme.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, B i b. Bohemy glas.
1641. ‘Smectymnuus,’ Answ. (1653), Post. 91. In Bohem, with the Schisme of the Hussites.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 55/1. The circuit of Bohemia is estimated at about 810 miles.
2. Gipsydom: see BOHEMIAN sb. 2.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., I. i. 25. Bohemia wanders, and steals.
3. The community of social ‘Bohemians,’ or the district in which they chiefly live. So F. la bohème. [Both in Fr. and Eng. taken from the use of BOHEMIAN sb. 3.]
1861. Thackeray, Adv. Philip, v. in Cornh. Mag., Feb., 186. What is now called Bohemia had no name in Philip’s young days, though many of us knew the country very well. A pleasant land, not fenced with drab stucco, like Tyburnia or Belgravia; [etc.].
