a historic region in SE Europe: a former Turkish province; a part of Austria-Hungary (1879–1918) now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Related forms
Bosnian, adjective
British Dictionary definitions for Bosnia
Bosnia
/ˈbɒznɪə/
noun
1.
a region of central Bosnia-Herzegovina: belonged to Turkey (1463–1878), to Austria-Hungary (1879–1918), then to Yugoslavia (1918–91)
Word Origin and History for Bosnia
named for the River Bosna, which is perhaps from an Indo-European root *bhog- "current." As a name or adjective for someone there, Bosnian (1788) is older in English than Bosniac (1836, from Russian Bosnyak).