pert
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɜːt/
ipa: /pɝt/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t
Forms: form: perter
form: pertest
Etymology: From Middle English pert, perte, aphetic form of apert.
Senses: glosses: Attractive.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: pert breasts
glosses: Well-formed; shapely.
raw_tags: of a part of the body
examples: text: Goe Philoſtrate, / Stirre vp the Athenian youth to merriments, / Awake the peart and nimble ſpirit of mirth, / Turne melancholy foorth to funerals: […]
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: He was instantly attracted to Gladys's pert, fey humor and her good nature.
ref: 2001, Donald Spoto, chapter 1, in Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, page 11:
synonyms: saucy
glosses: Lively; alert and cheerful; bright.
examples: text: Says Mrs. Jervis, Pamela, don’t be pert to his Honour? You ſhould know your Diſtance; you ſee his Honour was only in Jeſt.
ref: 1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XVI”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 37:
text: [T]he Major began to think that Pen was growing exceedingly pert and conceited, and that the world made a great deal too much of him.
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
text: […]so that I couldn't help telling her, sir, that in our country, leastways in Virginia (they say the Yankees are very pert), young people don't speak of their elders so.
ref: 1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, chapter XXXIV, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC:
text: “Then you didn't find her so amusing as Tom does?”
“I found her pert. There's no other word for it. She says things to puzzle you and put you out.”
ref: 1885, William Dean Howells, chapter XII, in The Rise of Silas Lapham:
text: "You'll not be so pert when the Cornish seize you. They spit children like you and roast them on bonfires."
ref: 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 333:
synonyms: word: audacious
word: bold
word: get wise
word: bold-faced
word: bold as brass
word: brassy
word: brazen
word: brazen-faced
word: cheeky
word: chutzpadik
word: cocket
word: cute
word: dicacious
word: facey
word: familiar
word: flippant
word: flip
word: forward
word: fresh
word: impudent
word: impertinent
word: insolent
word: irreverent
word: malapert
word: pert
word: petulant
word: sassy
word: saucy
glosses: Especially of children or social inferiors: cheeky, impertinent.
examples: text: Some parled as perte · as prouyd well after, / And clappid more ffor þe coyne · þat þe kyng oweth hem / Thanne ffor comfforte of þe comyne […]
ref: [15th century, “[Richard the Redeles.] Passus Quartus.”, in Walter W[illiam] Skeat, editor, The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest, […]. Richard the Redeles, […] The Crowned King, […] (Early English Text Society, Part III; 54) (in Middle English), London: […] [F]or the Early English Text Society by N[icholas] Trübner & Co., […], published 1873, →OCLC, page 503, lines 88–90:
english: Some talked as openly, as proud well after, / And clapped more for the coin that the king owes them / Than for comfort of the common […]
translation: Some talked as openly, as proud well after, / And clapped more for the coin that the king owes them / Than for comfort of the common […]
bold_translation_offsets: 15
21
glosses: Open; evident; unhidden.
glosses: Clever.
Derived terms: overpert
pert as a pearmonger
pertish
pertly
pertness
sea-pert