Noah Webster
Pertness
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.