Assertive means stating what you want firmly and clearly. Be more assertive, assertive but polite, an assertive tone.
It sits between passive and aggressive by design — assertiveness training teaches saying what you want without attacking, and the three-way contrast is the whole framework. The same behaviour is more often called aggressive in women than in men, which is a well-documented asymmetry. Note assert, assertion.
1adjectiveassertiveStating what you want firmly and clearly.
“She learned to be more assertive and finally asked her boss for a pay rise.”
synonyms: forthright, firm
assertive is a quality of firmness.
Assert plus -ive, from Latin asserere, to claim, from ad plus serere, to join. Series and insert come from the same joining.
Proto-Indo-European
*ser- (bind)
Medieval Latin
assertīvus
English, today
assertive
Borrowed from Medieval Latin assertīvus. Synchronically analyzable as assert + -ive.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA