Rapscallion

I used this word the other day, and I didn't even know that it was in my vocabulary! I called our little 3-legged kitty a "rapscallion" because he was being mischevious. I had to look up the word to make sure was using it correctly.

n. A rascal; a scamp.


Etymology:
1690s, alteration of rascallion (1640s), a fanciful elaboration of rascal (q.v.). It is the parallel term of now-extinct rampallion (1590s), from M.E. ramp (n.) "ill-behaved woman" (mid-15c.), which is probably connected to the definition of romp in Johnson's Dictionary (1755) as "a rude, awkward, boisterous, untaught girl."
 
I would say Dana's little tattlers are definitely rapscallions.
 
Excellent word!