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]