rambunctious

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 4, 2007 is: rambunctious • \ram-BUNK-shuss\  • adjective : marked by uncontrollable exuberance : unruly Examples: By the time she finally got the three rambunctious children to bed, the babysitter was exhausted. Did you know? "Rambunctious" first appeared in print in 1830, at a time when the fast-growing United States was forging its identity and indulging in a fashion for colorful new coinages suggestive of the young nation's optimism and exuberance. "Rip-roaring," "scalawag," "hornswoggle," and "skedaddle" are other examples of the lively language of that era. Did Americans alter the largely British "rumbustious" because it sounded, well, British? That could be. "Rumbustious," which first appeared in Britain in the late 1700s, was probably based on "robustious," a much older adjective that meant both "robust" and "boisterous." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.