sauciness

adjective, sau·ci·er, sau·ci·est.

1. impertinent; insolent: a saucy remark; a saucy child.
2. pert; boldly smart: a saucy little hat for Easter.

adjective saucier or sauciest

1. impertinent
2. pert; jauntya saucy hat

n.1540s, from saucy + -ness. adj.c.1500, “resembling sauce,” later “impertinent, flippantly bold, cheeky” (1520s), from sauce (n.) + -y (2). The connecting notion is the figurative sense of “piquancy in words or actions.” Cf. sauce malapert “impertinence” (1520s), and slang phrase to have eaten sauce “be abusive” (1520s). Also cf. salty in same senses.