ASSERT Copy link • ASSERTaio (to affirm a proposition by simply expressing it; opposed to nego): affirmare (to affirm it as certain: opposed to doubts and rumors, dubitare): asseverare (to assert strongly and in earnest; opposed to a light or jocular affirmation): defendere (to maintain a proposition that is attacked): contendere (to perseveringly maintain an opinion against contradicion): dicere (to say, without any accessory notion). To assert that anything is not so, negare. Democritus asserts that nobody can be a great poet without something of madness, Democritus negat sine furore quemquam poetam magnum esse posse. Vid: Not asserere. Defend, defendere: defensare: from or against anybody, ab aliquo, contra aliquem, ab aliqua re: tueri: tutari (ab aliquo, ab aliqua re, contra aliquem or aliquid): propugnare pro aliqua re. (The words are found in this connection and order), defendere etprotegere; defendere et propugnare [Vid: DEFEND]. Claim; vindicate a title to: rem sibi or ad se vindicare (by law or not): tenere: obstinere (to make good one’s right to a disputed possession): retinere (to withhold anything, not to give it up). In the poets and later prose writers, asserere aliquid alicui (sibi), or asserere only (se caelo asserere, Ov. So “assert the native skies,” Dryd.; i. e., claim to be heaven-born: nec laudes assere nostras, OVid :; nee sapientis nomen sibi asseruit, Quint.). To assert a right successfully, jus tenere, obtinere, retinere: to assert a right (= to endeavor to make it good), jus persequi: to assert one’s liberty (i. e., to escape from an actual servitude), se in libertatem asserere; se asserere (Ov.).