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.
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.).