Advertisement

Origin and history of rambunctious

rambunctious(adj.)

1834, of persons, "arrogantly boisterous, careless of the comfort of others," earlier rumbunctious, 1824, probably altered (by influence of ram) from rumbustious. Compare rantankerous "contentious" (Bartlett), a mid-19c. U.S. colloquial variant of cantankerous.

In all this bisnes the gineral was cute as a rasor. It needed somethin more than a cods-hed tu manage, with sich leger-de-main and hocus pocus, an affair requirin so much dexterity, every scrimptius bit on't havin tu be worked with master skill, with a set of rambunctious fellers who, findin themselves comin out second best warn't never out of the tantrums tu the eend on't. ["Major Jack Downing," "Life of Andrew Jackson," Philadelphia: 1834]

also from 1834

Entries linking to rambunctious

rumbustious(adj.)

1778, an arbitrary formation, one of what Farmer describes as "A class of colloquialisms compounded with an intensive prefix" (ram- or rum-), probably suggesting in part rum (adj.) in its old slang sense of "good, fine," and ramp (n.2). In this case apparently suggested by boisterous, robustious, bumptious, etc. Coined about the same time were rumbustical, rambumptious "conceited, self-assertive," rumgumptious "shrewd, bold, rash," rumblegumption, rambuskious "rough," rumstrugenous. Also compare ramshackle, rambunctious.

    Advertisement

    More to explore

    boisterous
    late 15c., boistreous, "rough, coarse," an unexplained alteration of Middle English boistous (c. 1300) "rough, coarse, clumsy, violent," which itself is of unknown origin, perhaps from Anglo-French bustous "rough (road)," itself perhaps from Old French boisteos "curved, lame; une
    ram
    Old English ramm "male sheep," also "battering ram, instrument for crushing or driving by impact," and the zodiac sign; earlier rom "male sheep," a West Germanic word (cognates: Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Dutch, Old High German ram), of unknown origin. Perhaps [Klein] conne
    cantankerous
    "marked by ill-tempered contradiction or opposition," 1772, said by Grose to be "a Wiltshire word," conjectured to be from an alteration (influenced perhaps by raucous) of a dialectal survival of Middle English contakour "troublemaker" (c. 1300), which is from Anglo-French contec
    theme
    early 14c., "subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks," from Old French tesme (13c., with silent -s- "indicating vowel length" [OED], Modern French thème) and directly from Latin thema "a subject, thesis," from Greek thema "a proposition, subject, deposit," literally "
    ivory tower
    symbol of artistic or intellectual aloofness, by 1889, from French tour d'ivoire, used in 1837 by critic Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869) with reference to the poet Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863), whom he accused of excessive aloofness. Et Vigny, plus secret, comme en sa t
    swallow
    "ingest through the throat" (transitive), Middle English swolwen, from Old English swelgan "swallow, imbibe, absorb" (class III strong verb; past tense swealg, past participle swolgen), from Proto-Germanic *swelgan/*swelhan (source also of Old Saxon farswelgan, Old Norse svelgja
    table
    Middle English, from Old French table, tabel "board, square panel, plank; writing table; picture; food, fare" (11c.), and also a survival of late Old English tabele "flat and relatively thin surface of some hard material," especially "writing tablet (of slabs of wood, etc.,), gam
    liberal
    mid-14c., "generous," also "nobly born, noble, free;" from late 14c. as "selfless, magnanimous, admirable;" from early 15c. in a bad sense, "extravagant, unrestrained," from Old French liberal "befitting free people; noble, generous; willing, zealous" (12c.), and directly from La
    menopause
    "the final cessation of the monthly courses of women," 1852 (from 1845 as a French word in English), from French ménopause, from medical Latin menopausis, from Greek mēn (genitive mēnos) "month" (from PIE *mehnes- "moon, month," from root *me- (2) "to measure," via the notion of
    arbiter
    late 14c., "person who has power of judging absolutely according to his own pleasure in a dispute or issue," from Old French arbitre "arbiter, judge" (13c.) and directly from Latin arbiter "one who goes somewhere (as witness or judge)," in classical Latin used of spectators and e

    Share rambunctious

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Dictionary entries near rambunctious
    Advertisement