assert Copy link Outline I. To affirm positively1. affirmo, 1 I a. nothing, I examine all things, nihil affirmo, quaero omnia, Cic.2. confirmo, 13. dīco, dixi, dictum, 34. āĭo, defect. (less emphatic than dico)II. To maintain, claim, vindicate • assert: I. To affirm positively: 1. affirmo, 1 I a. nothing, I examine all things, nihil affirmo, quaero omnia, Cic. 2. confirmo, 1: they a.'d that Caesar had hastened into the provinces, Caesarem in provincias contendisse confirmabant, Caes.: Cic. (Note. Confirmo is stronger than affirmo, and often means to establish, prove; but both are somewhat more emphatic than the Eng. word.) 3. dīco, dixi, dictum, 3: they a.'d, I denied, illi dicebant, ego negabam, Cic.: I a. that you went the preceding night into the house of M. Laeca, dico te priori nocte venisse in M. Laecae domum, Cic. (The negative, to assert that something is not so, may be expressed by nego: v. to deny.) 4. āĭo, defect. (less emphatic than dico): they a.'d that Tarquinius had been instigated by Cicero, Tarquinium a Cicerone immissum aiebant, Sall.: v. to affirm, asseverate.--Note. In this sense assĕro is found in late writers only; as Arnob. II. To maintain, claim, vindicate: q. v.: exsĕquor, assĕro.