Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a burst of petulant ill-temper, seen as childish or actually produced by a child.

1714		E. Verney Letter 30 Oct. in M.M. Verney 18C Memoirs (1930) II xxi 18: Our lady has had some of her tanterums as Vapors comeing out etc .
1754		Foote Knights in Works (1799) I 84: I am glad here’s a husband coming that will take you down in your tantrums; you are grown too headstrong and robust for me.
1796		F. Burney Camilla III v n.p.: He was but just got out of one of his tantarums [F&H].
1820		C. Greville Memoirs 20 Nov. n.p.: He threw himself into a terrible tantrum... they were obliged to let him have his own way for fear he should be ill [F&H].
1844		Thackeray Barry Lyndon (1905) 215: If [she] in any of her tantrums or fits of haughtiness [...] ] dared to twit me.
1851		Lytton My Novel (1884–5) II Bk XI 286: He has been in strange humours and tantrums all the morning.
1873		Sl. Dict. 319: Tantrums ill-tempers. ‘He’s in his tantrums this morning,’ is often said of a peevish, querulous man. They are not peculiar to the one sex, however.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Jan. 9/1: The flute has a lot to do in accompanying Lucia in her ‘tantrums’ [...].