In Europe, the term bohemian began as an ethnic designation and evolved into a general epithet meaning gypsy or beggar. During the middle decades of the nineteenth century in Paris, the term was adopted as a way to describe the growing class of disaffected young artists and intellectuals populating the garrets and cafés of the burgeoning metropolis. This usage retained some of the pejorative connotations left over from earlier applications, with many condemning these new bohemians as a morally dubious and parasitic bunch, though the mantle was soon adopted by many adherents as a point of pride. Since then the term has proven both durable and portable and is used to refer to the spaces and lifestyles of artists, intellectuals, and aesthetes in a host ...