Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PERT'NESS, n.

1. Briskness; smartness.
2. 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. – G. Spring.
3. Petty liveliness; sprightliness without force, dignity or solidity. There is in Shaftsbury's works a lively pertness and a parade of literature. – Watts.