central European kingdom, mid-15c., Beeme, from Middle French Boheme "Bohemia," from Latin Boiohaemum (Tacitus), from Boii, the Celtic people who settled in what is now Bohemia (and were driven from it by the Germanic Marcomans early 1c.; singular Boius, fem. Boia, perhaps literally "warriors") + Proto-Germanic *haimaz "home" (see home, n.). Attested from 1861 in meaning "community of artists and social Bohemians" or in reference to the district where they live (see bohemian).