CRYSTAL BALL OPTIONAL
The Pedant Class and Your Stars
MORE important and far more tragic things have happened this week, but still I can’t help wondering how the English language is going to cope with the yawning chasm left after “Brangelina” was withdrawn from circulation.
This lilting portmanteau word (which sounds like a folk tale about a boy who finds a tiny princess in a box of fibre-rich breakfast flakes) was ripped in two after more than a decade of decorative service.
It took less than a day for Brangelina’s severed constituent parts to make their solo appearance in media headlines. Many of these described Brad as “strict” and Angelina as “bohemian” because of their reportedly opposite attitudes to discipline.
Is bohemian really the opposite of strict? I thought bohemianism had rules, such as “always burn incense” and “never wear shoes”.
According to Wikipedia, those wishing to call themselves bohemian should follow “an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic, or literary pursuits”.
That is not a bad description of the actress formerly known as half a Brangelina. Nor is “associated with unorthodox or anti-establishment political or social viewpoints” but the part that says bohemians express their principles through “frugality and in some cases voluntary poverty” is less of a match.
In the same way that today’s hipsters bear no resemblance to the endangered creatures once known as hippies, the bohemian spirit is no longer free. It can now be found with its price tag hanging carelessly from a gelled fingernail as it drips Daliesquely over a chaise longue in the boho-chic pages of designer magazines.
Bohemian was always a problematic word. The French used it in the 15th century to describe nomadic people believed to have come from Bohemia, a kingdom in what we now know as the Czech Republic. About a century later the English started calling these folk gypsies (a derivation of Egyptians), because they were assumed to have migrated north from Egypt.
Both were wrong. The Roma or Romani people have their earliest roots in India and do not take kindly to being called gypsies. Sani Rifati, president of the Voice of Roma in the US, says: “I won’t play you a sad song on my violin. I do not have a bandana . . . I am just trying to speak up for my people: to tell you about their suffering and the persecution they’ve endured throughout the centuries . . . as a place to start: please call me Rom.”
This quote is from the web page “We Call Ourselves Romani”, which does not specifically object to “bohemian” although in the minds of those who drape scarves over lamps the word is interchangeable with the pejorative term “gypsy”. Last year the Brangelina clan was described by Popdust reporter Joanne Wolf as a “band of privileged gypsies”, which could not have gone down well with the Romani.
Where “gypsy” has become taboo, “bohemian” is merely annoying and pretentious.
“Bohemisms” are another kettle of goulash. These are not profound sayings uttered by Impressionists after a bottle of absinthe; they are words that come from the Czech language. “Polka” (a dance before it was reduced to a dot), “robot” (a word for drudgery coined by playwright Karel Capek) and “semtex” (a plastic explosive first made in the Czech town Semtin) are all Bohemisms.
As for “Bohemistics”, these are not parasites attached to the hairy legs of bohemians. Bohemistics is an academic term meaning the study of Czech language and literature. The study of Polish language and literature, incidentally, is known as Polonistics.
These are consoling facts. We may no longer be able to say gypsy or Brangelina, but at least we still have Bohemists and Polonists. LS
‘Gypsy’ has become taboo; ’bohemian’ is merely annoying