PERT'NESS, noun Briskness; smartness. 1. Sauciness; forward promptness or boldness; implying less than effrontery or impudence. Pertness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer. 2. Petty liveliness; sprightliness without force, dignity or solidity. There is in Shaftsbury's works a lively pertness and a parade of literature.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI