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Hmm . . . weird about the image. I can see it on my computer. Maybe because of different browsers?
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It’s because it’s from a site that prevents hot linking images, but since you viewed in its native environment, it’s in the image cache of your browser.
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Anyway, yeah, "bossa" is just an abbreviation for "bossa nova." Maybe it was more of an "artistic movement." but from a musician's perspective, "bossa (nova)" simply refers to certain musical characteristics defined primarily by rhythm section patterns. If you're a musician who is interested in playing Latin music, and you're a rhythm section player (drums/percussion, bass, piano, guitar), you need to learn all of the characteristics that define them, so that you know a bossa from a samba, mambo, rumba, salsa, tango, cha-cha, etc.--there are a bunch of different "modes" in that vein, and they all have different defining characteristics.
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Pretty much everything I’ve read about bossa nova describes it as being based in samba, but with less emphasis on rhythm and much more emphasis on melody. Maybe the beat also changed over time to the point a certain variant became associated with specifically with bossa nova?
Tropicalia has kind of fallen by the wayside in this conversation. Is there also a distinct beat associated with that? I used to think I had a pretty good handle on what was and wasn't tropicalia, then I started noticing that a lot of people I think of as belonging in that category frequently get labeled as bossa nova—like Marco Valle and Caetano Veloso, for example. So I'm pretty unclear where the line is between the two.
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That's also important just for doing jazz gigs in general. A bandleader might call "Autumn Leaves as a bossa" or "Satin Doll as a mambo" and you need to know what to play so that you're actually doing a bossa or mambo or whatever.
I've worked as much as a jazz musician as anything else, but I've done a number of Latin gigs over the years, too. In fact, I've been working with a fusiony Afro-Cuban jazz band recently.
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So, are you a drummer? Percussion is one of my favorite things in music, though I’m really awful at playing it. I'd be curious to hear your Afro-Cuban jazz band, I love stuff like that.